Mobile Suit Gundam: Project N
by Newtype Alpha
Summary: Project N represents a clear and present danger to the Earth sphere; in the hands of the Titans, it could become a devastating weapon. The only thing that stands in their way: the AEUG, and there newest assault carrier Tarawa --Chapter 25: Alice's Heart--
1. Prologue

_If you stumble, your brother will watch you fall. He will shake his head in wonder how it is that you loose your footing, but aside from a taunting shout of encouragement he will make no physical move to help you to your feet... This is the essence of spiritual poverty._

- Artesia Som Daikun

****

Prologue

- January 3, UC 0079 -

- 0751 hours (CST) -

The Lieutenant's blood was a flame of anger, boiling with hatred in his veins with an intensity that threatened to melt the armor of his mobile suit. He was standing on the Falmel's forward hull, the remainder of his mobile suit team hovering nearby awaiting the return of Ensign Santana with their deadly cargo. The colony stretched out before him would be the first to drink from the cup of his wrath: Island Ifish, the first completed colony in the history of mankind, a place the inhabitance had come to call Nobel City. Soon it's six million inhabitants would learn the new definition of justice. At a younger age he might have been remorseful, he might even have been reduced to some childish emotional outburst. But this Lieutenant was a true Zeon, a chosen warrior of Gihren's dream. A son of Zeon with a destiny to fulfill.

The radio crackled in his ears again; someone from the 9th team was sending out an emergency beacon. All at once the direction of his hatred and rage became focused elsewhere. "7th Team, that Saberfish squadron has dispatched our patrol unit. You have fifteen minutes to neutralize enemy resistance."

There was a long pause before the response, then another officer responded from a different unit, "2nd Team here... Lieutenant Cunningham, we've lost contact with Lieutenant Garahau's unit. We still have a visual on them, they're pretty busy. I think there's another squadron trying to sneak under us."

Dieter ground his teeth in frustration. He had expected more from the Marines than to be drawn away from the defense line by such an obvious diversion. Then again, he couldn't help but wonder how a diversionary unit could have gotten so close to the transport team in the first place. "2nd team, leave your position and take care of it. You have fourteen minutes. 4th team, we are six minutes behind schedule. Victor, where the hell are those canisters?"

As if on cue, an older MS-05 Zaku-I came up alongside, a bundle of steel cables in one hand dragging a massive cylinder of compressed gas. "The Feddies nailed one of the Panzocks. This is the only one left."

"Fine. We'll have to cut through the side panels under the mirrors." Lieutenant Cunningham added some pressure to his verniers and started towards the colony. Victor moved in behind him with the gas cylinder in tow, with the other two MS-06's just behind him as escort. All of the other colonies of Side 1 had already been purged, but this one had been saved for Dieter's Special Forces unit. Nobel City was about to take it's place in history.

His computer registered a heat source in the distance, and he looked up at almost the same moment the Falmel's main guns opened fire. His sensors registered at least five of them, Saberfish fighters in a loose formation. Ever since they'd cleared the Federation fleet guarding the colony, more than a few pilots had resorted to suicide runs. "Ignore them!" He shouted on their channel, "Proceed to the colony and complete the mission. We can't drop this colony until it's been purified." The fighter squadron came into range for missiles, but another barrage from the Falmel's guns ripped into the midst of them; two of the space planes vanished into fireballs, the other three split up and started searching for an angle to attack the ship. Dieter and his Zaku team pressed on towards the colony-- two newer mobile suits, both MS-06Fs with Marine markings passed them in the opposite direction to engage the fighters. "Maybe the Marines are good for something after all..."

"Hows about there, sir?" Victor approached a section of the transparent sky-wall on the outside of the colony, dimmed now from the twilight of the early colonial sunrise. Nobody in the colony was sleeping now; he knew the air raid sirens had been screaming for at least an hour since the attack began.

Dieter examined the spot: it was about the midpoint of the colony, close to one of the urban areas but nearby an open plane where the wind would spread the gas more quickly. "Perfect. Cut through the skin and start injection. We're still four minutes behind schedule!"

"Roger." Victor and Faye moved the cylinder against the transparent outer layer, and immediately a built-in drill bit on the bottom of the cylinder began cutting its way through the reinforced outer layer. He knew it would take a few minutes for the bit to cut all the way through, but once they were in...

He didn't see them moving behind them. All four of them knew not to move too quickly and risk setting off the Zaku's motion sensors. They hugged the skin of the colony wall and moved in the shadows as much as possible until they came to the edge of the sky-wall, then lined up side by side, held position with verniers, and all at once fired the tiny rockets bolted to their hulls. Dieter's computer warned him just a moment too late and the first rocket made contact, burying itself deep in his upper arm before deploying the six grappler spikes to lock it in place. Immediately the winch on the front of the machine kicked into action, pulling with such force the Zaku's feet lost contact with the colony wall and the force of rotation sent the mobile suit tumbling into space. The other tow cables made contact with the two guarding mobile suits, likewise yanking them off the colony and sending them hurtling. 

Victor spun around at the motion, startled but somewhat collected, "Shit! Lieutenant, what the...?!"

"Stay with the canister and start the injection!" Dieter stabilized after a moment and traced the tow cable to its source; on seeing it he found himself at a loss for words. They were spherical machines, glass canopies over an open cockpit, with two powerful grappler arms attached to a metal frame beneath. Their verniers were oversized, almost like those of a mobile suit, but the emblem of the Colony Public Corporation on the front plating just above the tow cable gave them away. "Construction pods? Are they crazy?!"

He raised his rifle and started to fire, but the pod took the cable in one grappler and yanked it to the side, spinning his suit halfway around before the first shells could leave his gun. In the next instant he felt an impact behind him and realized suddenly that the pod hand latched itself to him with its claws. "Victor, hurry up with the cylinder!"

Victor had followed his orders; even when the others engaged, he still managed to stay with the gas cylinder until it had completed its work. "It's halfway through! One meter to go!"

Dieter fired his thrusters to full power to try and break away, but as soon as he pushed his throttles his computer beeped a warning that one of his fuel tanks had been ruptured. _He's using a laser torch!_ "Yuri, Faye, I've got a hot one on me!"

"I got one too, boss! Gimme just a minute!" Faye's mobile suit struggled with a construction pod on its own back, and looking over on his monitors Dieter could see the blaze of a laser torch cutting through her armor as well. She spun the suit as quickly as she could trying to dislodge her opponent, but the grappler arms had too firm of a hold on her. "Yuri, can you help out Faye?"

The third team member started moving to support, but a tow cable fired across his face wrapped around one arm, and another from the opposite direction entangled the other both pulled tight at once and locked his arms against the Zaku's torso. "I can't get to her, the other two got me tangled up!" 

"Shit!" The glow from the laser torch intensified against Faye's suit. Dieter realized in sudden panic that the torch was cutting into the coolant tank for the fusion reactor. The pilot either didn't realize what he was doing, or simply didn't care. "Faye, he's cutting into the reactor! Bail out!"

"Hold on a minute, it's just one stupid construc..." The pod released the mobile suit and pushed away just as a powerful jet of hot gas burst from within the armor. Ensign Manning had just enough time to curse under her breath before the fusion reactor breached and the mobile suit disappeared into a nuclear fireball. The construction pod that had dealt the lethal blow turned in space now, zeroing in on Dieter's mobile suit as he struggled with the pod on his own back.

The computer warned of a systems failure in his main sensors, and out of the corner of his eye the monitors reflected the red flashing as the torch burned through the metal on the side of his head. He felt a powerful swell of relief that this other civilian wasn't quite as clever as the other one. "Yuri, he's tryin to get my camera!"

"I'm gonna break free, hold on...!" 

"You got thirty seconds!" Dieter spun the suit as hard as he could, trying in vain to shake off the construction pod before it could inflict too much damage. For a moment he felt the pod starting to loose its grip, but then the pod changed its grip and clamped on by both shoulders. Something else hissed in his radio on a different frequency. Dieter tuned his second channel to what he recognized as a civilian frequency and listened.

"Emma, quit screwin around! Either finish him or let him go!" It was the voice of a young boy, probably in his mid teens, but speaking with a kind of authority Dieter might have mistaken for a Zeon pilot.

A girl's voice answered back, even younger sounding, he guessed from the machine that had him in its clutches, "This is taking me too long! Move on to the injector!"

"Emma...!"

"Do it! I'll hold him here! Everyone's counting on you, Ryo!"

_They're going after the cylinder..._ The construction pod that had destroyed Faye's suit moved away from them under full thrust, charging towards the G-3 cylinder attached to the colony wall just beyond them. On reflection he saw the brilliance of their strategy; a simple diversion while the one ace among them took care of the objective. He admired the craftiness of the civilians, but the machines they used were reminders of their place in the scheme of things. "Nice try, kids, but this is a grownup's war!" He steadied himself as much as possible and took aim, locking the Zaku machinegun onto one of the pods that had Yuri tangled in tow cables. At just the right moment he fired off a short burst, striking one of the pods dead center and blowing it to bits where it stood. 

The tow cable fell way from the debris and Yuri spun around to face the other one, and with a strong yank of the cable around his arm he pulled the pod into range and sliced it in half with his heat hawk. "Nice shot boss..."

"Shut up you moron! Get that pod!"

Yuri swiveled the mono-eye just as the other construction pod came up next to him and swung the heat hawk on a defensive reflex. Somehow the pod managed to catch the arm in one of its grappler claws, and with one deft movement the little machine ripped the arm from the socket, turned it in its claws, and struck down on the Zaku before the heat hawk's battery could even cut out. The bladed hatchet cut through the armor like a knife through butter, slashing through the torso just above the cockpit, slicing open one of the fuel tanks as it followed through. Yuri sprung the cockpit and bailed out as the suit exploded behind him, and now the construction pod had a clear path straight to Victor and the G-3 cylinder. Dieter's main camera sputtered and died from the assault of the laser torch, but he felt the pilot locked onto him start to loosen her grip; obviously she was gaining a false sense of security by her partial victory over his machine. "Victor, watch your back! He's headed straight for you!"

There was a long pause on the radio before the Ensign replied on the same channel, a strange note of calm in his voice. "It's finished, Lieutenant." He chuckled for a moment, moving his mobile suit away from the colony to help break Dieter free of the pod that had him ensnared. "Injection was completed on schedule. In fifteen minutes, this colony will be dead." He started to move in to strip the construction pod off Dieter's back, but as soon as he came close the other pod moved passed him in an effort to assist in the dismemberment of the Lieutenant's mobile suit. "You want this one, Lieutenant?"

Dieter switched to his backup cameras and grimaced at the grainy image from outside. But it was more than enough to see the enemy pods maneuvering outside, and the one on his back trying clumsily to disable his mobile suit. "By all means." He swung his legs forward and fired his verniers, slamming against the front of the construction pod before reversing thrust and breaking free of its claws. The pilot seemed to hesitate for a moment too long, but Dieter's fist did not hesitate; it smashed through the glass canopy and crashed down on the pilot's head, effectively ripping the labor pod in half with the sheer force of the impact. He spun around again just as the other pod charged him in rage, tow cable trained and laser torch blazing in a micro-arm extending from the under-body. _Who does he think he is? _Dieter took his Zaku rifle in hand and took aim and opened fire, and the construction pod fired its tow cable at the same moment as it charged. Both avoided each other's attack, and in the next instant the two clashed head-on under full thrust. The metallic frame of the pod buckled from the impact and the canopy shattered, and at the same time Dieter's forward monitor shorted out as one of the grappler claws ripped open his chest plate. 

The Zaku and the pod circled in space next to a dying colony, tearing and slashing at each other, pummeling with anything at their disposal as the fury of war boiled around them...

- January 10, UC 0079 -

- 0520 hours (LST) -

Hodge was in desperate need of a new job. He'd been running this route for two and a half years and every day it seemed to be getting steadily worse. No one else would trade with him, they all knew better. The sanitation department paid him almost 50 thousand dollars a year just to encourage him not to quit, but as of late he was beginning to doubt if it was really worth it. Lord only knew what he would find in the dumpsters of the alley behind the row of abandoned warehouses and scrap yards. This was where the Mafia dumped dead bodies after a hit, where dead-beat parents abandoned small children and left them at the mercy of whatever pimp noticed them first. This was where drug dealers made their living, where their customers came to waste their life. This was where lunatics went on rampages in the streets, leaving massive piles of shit in the trashcans or masturbating on the handles of the dumpsters for no apparent reason. This was the one place in lower Granada where the rats were the size of sheep. And today, as always, was just another lovely Monday in the basement of a Lunar city. "I'm quitting this job, Rick, I swear."

"Just ask for another raise, Hodge." His partner said, pulling his gloves on in the seat next to him.

Hodge turned left at the corner, less than a block away from the day's pickup route. As usual, the top-heavy garbage truck tipped over on two wheels during the turn, but Hodge knew it would handle differently once it was full. "You've been sick all month so you don't know how bad it's been. I came around the corner the other day and there were a couple hookers turning tricks in the alley. They wouldn't get out of the way, I had to sit there and wait for em to finish!"

Rick laughed at the image that popped into his mind, knowing Hodge as well as he did. "You're wife would be pissed if you told her that."

Hodge knew that was true, assuming his wife even bothered to listen to him gripe about work anymore. Then he remembered how engrossed she was in the news lately, which he could hardly blame her for. "I guess I should stop bitching, right? What with the colony drop and all..."

"Yeah, I was just listening to the radio. They say the damn thing landed on Australia."

Hodge sighed distantly. "I can't even imagine what that must have been like. You're sitting in the middle of a space colony falling out of orbit, you're watching the world around you rip itself apart and then... BANG!"

"That WOULD suck, except I heard the Zeeks gassed the colony before they dropped the damn thing."

"Heh. How courteous of them." Hodge put the subject on the back burner for now, the garbage truck finally coming up on the first stop. "Here we go, Rick. First stop of the day's always the moment of truth."

Rick braced himself and pulled his gloves on tighter. Whatever they saw at the first pickup would set the pace for the next five and a half miles of their route. Hodge pulled into the three- way intersection and stepped out on his side. "You wouldn't happen to know what happened to Rachel, would you?"

"Her mother lives in Side 1. When she heard about the battle she took off and tried to hitch a ride over there."

Hodge walked around the back of the truck and rubbed the back of his neck. "Poor Rachie. Even IF she makes it to the right colony, there's about once chance in fifty anyone will be alive." Hodge examined the first trash can next to the brick wall. Nothing strange in sight, no odd smells, no strange secretions lining the handles or the lid. "So far so good..." 

He picked up one can and dragged it over to the back of the truck, but just around the time he noticed Rick wasn't back there with him he heard the younger man call out at the top of his lungs, "Oh my god! Hodge... Hodge, gimme a hand here!"

"What's wrong?"

"Hodge!!" he shouted again.

His first instinct was that Rick was in some kind of trouble, but when he ran around the truck he found his partner kneeling down in the corner of the alley next to a mangled, nude form that vaguely resembled a human being, lying face down in a pool of blood. Hodge sprinted over to his side and knelt down next to him, and almost instantly he felt like vomiting. The body belonged to a child, a little girl barely into her teens. The skin of her back was tattered and shredded like an old T-shirt, sliced open so deeply in some places he could see through the bones of her shoulder blades. Just from the look of her he would have thought for sure she was mauled by a family of grizzly bears, until he noticed one other telling detail: her hands were tied together with a leather belt.

Hodge wasn't sure what impulse moved him, but he leaned down carefully and lifted the girl off the ground, pulled her gently across his knees and turned her up to face him. He noticed something around her neck, and tracing the outline he followed it to a double knot next to her chin with plastic tips at the edge. "Shoelaces... What'd they do, hang the kid?" He pulled at the knot a little to try and loosen it; as soon as he did he felt her entire body jerking in pain. "She's alive," He said, his mind suddenly going blank. He sat there for a few more moments, then held his ear up to he face. He could hear her breathing, but he could hear a gargling sound in her throat like a drowning victim on her last breath. "That's it for me. I quit." He said, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around her shoulders.

Rick surged up excitedly and sprinted into the truck, Hodge followed more slowly with the girl in his arms. "How close is the nearest hospital?" Rick said, shifting the truck into reverse.

Hodge climbed up into the passenger seat and closed the door. "From this neighborhood? You don't wanna know."

- January 20, UC 0079 -

- 0940 hours (LST) -

Dr. Pearson always hated having to deal with social workers on cases like this. He had nothing against them personally, but he found it disturbing that they always showed up to help with cases where a child was admitted with no parents or adult supervision of any kind. This one was far worse than the typical case, but he had learned the hard way that sometimes the most unusual cases were simply a preview for a new norm. With the start of the war between the Federation and the Zeon, he felt like he was in for a very long year.

The social worker was already in the room when he came by, dressed in the standard uniform of baggy, wrinkled slacks and the tacky jean-colored blazer. Pearson recognized his face, and the name that crept back from the depth of his memory was George Calloway, the guy who for some reason always got the sexual abuse cases. The girl was sitting in a wheelchair exactly as he had left her that morning, staring at the wall with the same empty, disconnected expression. Calloway was kneeling down in front of her, trying to appeal to anything inside her that might still have a grip on reality. Pearson knocked on the doorpost to get his attention and then stepped inside timidly, seeing Callaway's disappointment. "This is a pretty serious case, George. Thanks for stopping by."

Calloway stood up and clicked on the TV on the table in front of the girl, hoping to drown out the rest of their conversation with CNN news coverage. He pulled Pearson to a corner of the room and lowered his voice. "The nurse gave me the general idea. I know I'm gonna regret asking, but I just need some of the details."

Pearson hated to talk about it almost as much as the social worker would hate to listen to it, but business was business. "We don't know her name or her family history so we haven't been able to contact anyone about her. We think she' about twelve years old, but she won't tell us anything for sure. Her fingerprints aren't in the record and she doesn't match any missing persons files, so we think she's either a transient or a foreigner." 

"And the injuries?"

"She's had eleven-thousand stitches on her back, ribs and genitalia, some skin grafts, one prosthetic kidney, and she's had two operations to repair internal bleeding from knife wounds and a collapsed lung."

Calloway braced himself for what he was sure would be the worse of it. "What about the attackers? We know anything about that yet?"

Pearson took a breath, giving off maybe the only news the girl would have found relevant. "She was assaulted by at least three different men, all unidentified so far. The DNA patterns aren't in the records, so we assume they were probably transients themselves, although we haven't ruled out a military officer since those records are off limits to us with the war and all."

Calloway took it all in, filed it away for later when he would probably have to arrange a foster home for this kid. "Have the head shrinkers been here yet?"

Pearson nodded. "She doesn't talk, doesn't move, doesn't even eat, just sits there in a daze all day. It's a different story at night though. The shrinks are seeing all the signs of severe post-traumatic stress syndrome."

"Wouldn't surprise me." Calloway walked over to the girl and knelt down beside her again. She didn't react to him in the slightest, but Calloway was a stubborn man. "What about the blood tests?"

Pearson knew he was saying this for her benefit, so he turned down the TV a notch and made sure she could hear. "She's clean. No sign of infection of any kind. Pregnancy came back negative too."

"That's good news." He placed himself in front of her face and looked into her eyes. She didn't meet his glance and all, not even when he lifted her face to look at him.

"She's been like that for eight days, now. Ever since she woke up."

Calloway stepped back for a moment and took Pearson aside to the corner of the room. He turned the TV back up and took Pearson aside again to speak to him.

He wouldn't have guessed it, but the girl's ears tracked every word of their conversation and she, like Calloway, filed it all away for future use. She knew her body would recover, at least as far as Pearson and the others kept insisting, but the fact that they still didn't know who attacked her was a strange relief. She had known those men even before the incident, and had learned to fear him many years in advance. Pressing charges at this point was a surefire way to get herself killed, so she began to consider her alternatives. She knew she needed –and fully intended– to get at him through the back door, but just what that method could be was a real mystery.

She listened in on Pearson and Callaway's conversation for a few minutes, catching a few potentially useful words to add to her vocabulary. Illegal minor... child abandonment... Mal nutrition... gang rape... colony drop... _Colony Drop?_ That last word, in fact, came from talking heads on the CNN 24-hour live coverage. Her eyes drifted up to the TV screen and followed the headlines, taking more interest than anything her two caretakers could say next. One of the anchors, an Asian woman with a very small mouth was reading off a report, trying and failing to hide the despair in her eyes. "... initial reports from Federation disaster relief units operating on the continent have reported a slowing of their progress due to lingering radiation from the colony's impact, in addition to some lingering colony fragments still raining down on the continent from space. At this point, relief workers operating on the continent have made contact with survivors in communities in Alice Springs and Simpson's Gyap, though it is generally assumed that there are more survivors in isolated pockets as close as a hundred mile from the edge of the crater. Amnesty International estimates the casualties at between..." She faltered for a moment, not believing what she was reading herself, "At uhhh...anywhere between one hundred and three hundred million dead." 

The anchorwoman paused for a moment and flipped to another paper on the desk, redoubling her efforts to keep the fear out of her voice. The girl almost felt sorry for her; she'd probably been there all morning reading news like this. "CNN war correspondents have confirmed reports of survivors from... correction, ONE survivor from Nobel Colony. He is identified as 17 year old Ryo Izumi, previously employed with by the Colony Corporation as a construction worker, pictured here with fiancé Emily Regan." The screen faded to a picture of a young boy, leaning against the wall with a dark-skinned girl, both with mischievous grins on their lips and some kind of trophies in their hands. "Izmui reportedly joined a group of several construction pods to in a counter attack against Zeon mechanized fighters, or mobile suits as they are called, and was later picked up by a Federation warship after the colony entered the atmosphere..." Izumi's picture was replaced by a photograph of a mobile suit, probably from the gun camera of a hapless Federation fighter. The girl froze that image in her mind for the rest of her life: that imposing metal war machine 50 feet tall, with feet the size of cars and hands that could crush a man like an insect. _Those machines are more powerful than they look,_ she thought, rotating the image in her mind to examine it more closely, _And they look DAMN powerful,_. "Not only that, but young Izumi went on to distinguish himself in the recent Battle of Loum by shooting down an additional two Zeon mobile suits with a commandeered FFS-6 Saberfish fighter. He says he plans to officially enlist in the Federation Space Forces just as soon as the Merrimac returns to its home port."

__

Enlist? The screen cut to an interview of the boy, speaking before cameras from his hospital bed on the cruiser Merrimack. "We can't just let the Zeeks walk all over us, can we? Enough is enough, we have to fight back or they'll go on killing more people..." _He enlisted to PREVENT killing?_

"How do you manage to destroy so many of those giant robots? I heard they were invincible."

The boy grinned at the camera, even as he tried to downplay it. Deep down he felt a swell of pride with himself. "Every weapon has it's weakness. Even Zakus can be destroyed if you hit em in just the right spot."

"What do you hope to accomplish by joining the army?" Asked another reporter from a different network.

The girl reached over and plucked the I.V. needle from her hand as she waited for his response. "Some people can't be reached with diplomacy. The Zabi's have always been a suspicious bunch but we were willing to tolerate them for a while, but this time they crossed the line! All of us in the pods, we all knew we HAD to fight back!" _But I TRIED to fight back! There were three of them and they were all bigger than me! How was I supposed to...!?_ "I tried to fight em off with my construction pod, you know, using a laser torch and the tow cables and whatnot, but we just couldn't get it done with those little construction pods."

"Are you discouraged at all about our chances in this war? I mean, against the new Zeon weapons?" The same reporter asked a little more excited.

"Well yeah, but the way I see it, I did pretty okay with a construction pod, and the Saberfish isn't bad either. But if we get some better equipment, some new weapons... just you wait! It'll all be different next time!"

__

It'll all be different next time... She envisioned her fantasy again, the imposing bulk of the Zaku mobile suit, clasping a human form in its mechanical hand. Age, size, strength, even rank made no difference in a mobile suit battle...

Her mind was made up, and at the same time she decided the time for recovery had comer and gone. Mr. Calloway happened to catch a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked over the wheelchair sat empty on the ground, the blanket that had covered her legs still floating back to the ground from the air. Pearson and Calloway ran to the door and looked down the hall just in time to see the girl running down the hall in a sprint, literally kicking orderlies and nurses out of her way, then turning and the corner and flying down the stairway. They heard a crashing sound of someone falling then another as hapless patients were sent tumbling at her feet on her mad dash to freedom.

Calloway ran over to the window of the hospital room and looked down over the balcony, seeing a tiny figure racing across the front lawn of the hospital to the main street. "Doc, I may be going out on a limb here, but do you get the feeling that kid's a lot stronger than she looks?" She ran strait into the main street, stopping in the middle of traffic and waving her arms to flag down a car. One drive stopped his jeep just short of hitting her, and in a blur of movement she ran around to the driver's side, smashed the drive's nose with her fist and tossed him out of the seat like a rag doll. She leapt into the driver's seat herself, visibly grimaced from the pain in her back before flooring the accelerator and speeding off, out of view.

__

He's right. If I don't stop them they'll go on hurting people... she thought to herself, speeding down the highway towards her familiar neighborhood. _And I won't be alone the Federation makes more enemies for itself every day._ An air raid siren whistled in the distance. She saw a flash of light high above her and looked up; a single mobile suit was rising into the air above her, firing down into the city and a row of Federation tanks with its 120mm machinegun. She saw a series of fireballs rising over the skyline close to where the shells had impacted, and the Zeon suit maneuvered in the distance searching for a new target. _I just hope when this thing gets ugly, it won't involve anyone else..._


	2. Chapter 1: The Merrimac Incident

_"Newtypes are among us at this very moment, standing next to us, living and working with us, some of those reading this at this very moment are themselves newtypes and are not even aware of it..." _

- Zeon Zum Daikun  


* * *

**Chapter 1: The Merrimac Incident**

_- February 2, UC 0084 -_

_- 1431 hours (CST) -  
_ Lieutenant Ryo Izumi planted his feet on the steel plating next to the linear car door and waited for it to come to a stop. The doors slid open all at once and passengers eased out carefully, making sure not to float too far from the ground where they could plant their shoes on the metal. A dozen people passed him, lugging huge cumbersome suitcases and duffle bags in the air like gigantic kites. Two younger children came spilling out of the car, not used to the gravity-less environment of the bay block, floating around haphazardly before any nearby adults managed to grab a hold and work them back to the ground. The last two people off the train, both in Federation uniforms, lazily strolled through the doors and into the station and looked around passively. Ryo pushed off the deck towards them and the shorter of the two noticed him as he came closer. "I know, we're late. Gimme a break will you?" Sergeant Amonte said, wrestling light brown hair back into place. "I got here as fast as I could..."

Ryo set planted his feet in front of them and Lieutenant Anderson draped his hand over the Sergeant's shoulder. "Kelly, I've seen you repair a fusion reactor with tinker-toy parts. How come you can't fix your damn watch?"

Kelly chuckled lightly. "Hey, if I set it right I'd be late for everything! C'mon, Brian, you know me!"

"Yeah, that's true." Brian looked around the station slowly, finding the compartment suddenly vacant except for them. "Where's Alice?"

Ryo looked around for a few moments, then shrugged. "Answering nature's call. You know how slow she is." He turned towards the big tunnel out of the linear car station and gestured for the two of them to follow. "There's something weird going on today. There's alot of ships coming into the bay block but none of em are leaving."

Kelly remembered from the bitterly-complaining old woman next to them on the train. "Yeah, I heard about that. You know what's going on?"

"I'll give you a cookie if you can guess on the first try."

Brian took a guess, bracing his gut for a fresh sugar cookie. "Titans in port, huh?"

"Three ships. They've got a Pegasus class too."

"Pegasus?" Brian glanced at Kelly with a shocked expression. "Now there's a rare item around here. You sure it wasn't Midway class?"

Ryo stopped for a moment and thought about it. "Might have been. I can't usually tell the difference."

Kelly sighed pitifully. "If it's a Titans ship, they call it a Midway. The only difference is the fancier mobile suits..." The corridor opened into the main departures terminal and all three of them stopped and planted their feet as they came in. There was some kind of commotion around the security checkpoint into the gate, with dozens of officers in black and red Titans uniforms pressing a nearly equal number of civilians to the ground in handcuffs. A few Federation officers watched this a short distance away, along with a few less courageous civilian witnesses just a little bit behind them.

The three of them moved again, drifting through the strangely empty terminal and vacated lines to the shy woman behind the ticket counter. Brian recognized her despite the tacky beehive haircut and business casual blouse, and she immediately recognized him simply by the flat, dispassionate tone in his voice. "Janie, what's going on?"

"They were trying to board the last transport to Granada." She said, her voice shaking in a failed attempt not to sound nervous. "The Titans had the ship impounded and took all their passports away and then they all got pissed. One of them got into an argument with that Monsha guy over there, and he made some stupid joke about dropping a colony on his mother, and the Titan took it personally and they got into a fight." Ryo and Kelly looked to the corner of the room, seeing one badly bruised Titans officer with an ice pack in one hand and a bottle of scotch in the other. A line of blood ran from an extremely broken nose, staining the left side of his mustache. "Turns out the guy also had a Zeon passport, so after the fight, the Titans arrested EVERYBODY and started searching their luggage, including everyone in every outbound shuttle for the past twenty minutes. Another unit left ten minutes ago to search their homes for contraband and impound any space worthy vehicles on a private license." 

Ryo took this in with a bit of distant skepticism. Now they were all worried. "You DO know how illegal that is, don't you?"

"Yeah, that's what Warren said. Then that asshole Bosque punched him in the face."

Ryo almost did a double take. "Bosque?! Bosque Ohm was here?!"

"You just missed him. Good thing too, I heard he doesn't like you much."

"Bosque doesn't like his own mother." Kelly took a few deep breaths and hoped for the best. "You seen Alice around? She usually catches up with us after a few minutes but..."

"Oh, I forgot!" Janie had look of remembrance suddenly and leaned over the counter. "Lieutenant Adel!"

One of the Titans officers supervising the proceedings looked up slowly, then with a kind of placid expression floated over in front of the counter. "What's the problem now, Ms. Collins?"

"Lieutenant Anderson wants to talk to you."

Brian could tell how intimidating this was for her just to have to speak to a Titans officer, especially given Janie's normally cowardly disposition. He decided to give her a break in this case. "Lieutenant J.G. Brian Anderson, UNS Merrimac."

"Lieutenant Chap Adel, UNS Agamemnon." Adel held out his hand, Brian shook it despite the urge to break it off with something. "Sorry about all the ruckus today, you know how it is."

"I'm afraid I do." Brian looked past him at the unhappy civilians face-down on the metal in shackles, all of them bruised and bloodied from a fight they probably never started. "I think you may have found something I lost."

Adel nodded and turned back to the officers and their otherwise incapacitated suspects. "Hey Bate, we found Big Brother!"

"Really? Well how about that..." Lieutenant Bate disappeared through the security checkpoint and returned a moment later towing a handcuffed young girl by the collar of her jet-black button down shirt. He tossed her like a human javelin across the terminal, and Chap stopped her in front of the ticket counter and put her feet on the ground. "One less body to worry about!" He shouted, getting back to the nonsense in front of the security point.

Alice stood in silence for a few moments, as usual letting others do the talking for her. "Very sorry about that. She didn't have any I.D. on her and wouldn't give us a strait explanation for what she was doing here. When we asked her to leave she pretended she was blind and gave a hard time..."

"She IS blind, Lieutenant. She doesn't have any I.D. because she's not currently a resident of Libot Colony. The Federation has provisional custody of her, and she lives with me on the cruiser Merrimack."

Chap's face turned a few shades redder. "I see..."

Alice sighed in disappointment, feeling thoroughly cheated out of the last 25 minutes of her life. "I believe those were my exact words, Lieutenant?" She said sourly.

"I stand corrected, I'm sorry."

"Forget it. Can I go now?"

"Sure, just lemme take off those..." There was a distinct popping sound, then a twist of Alice's shoulders and the handcuffs broke free from his wrists and floated freely behind her, "...cuffs."

Brian patted him on the shoulder and walked on by along with Ryo, but Kelly paused for a moment for a parting shot. "Anyone who asks why the colonies hate Earthnoids hasn't been paying attention. Try fitting THAT into your report."

Bate snorted at him as he left and grumbled behind his back, "Damn spacenoids piss me off sometimes..."

The four of them passed through the security checkpoints without incident, and continued on towards the gate only too happy to put this scene behind them. The scene in front of the checkpoint had been just the tip of the iceberg; now they were seeing dozens of people, some of them face down on the deck in cuffs, others sitting off to the side being questioned, while still more of them removing articles of clothing in a search for weapons or otherwise dangerous materials they might be trying to smuggle in. They weren't very far from the gate to the Merrimack when Brian stopped them all again, gesturing at something off in the corner near another gate. "You see that?" He said, keeping his voice down. "Those are Titans."

Ryo looked in the direction he indicated and looked very closely. There were four officers; one older man in a Titans uniform with an Admiral's rank pins on his collar, and three extremely young officers in Federation uniforms standing at attention in front of him. Oddly, the youngest one of the three appeared to the be the ranking officer, a gentle looking girl with cherry red hair and a no-nonsense demeanor that seemed perfectly fitting for a commander of some unit. "They're in regular uniforms though..."

"That's because they're spacenoids. They're under Titan authority, but they're technically still part of the regular Space Forces."

"Deputized?" Kelly whispered.

"More like Uncle Tom's Special Forces. The Titans pay them to run counter intelligence and plant moles in spacenoid nationalist groups to keep an eye on things. They're spacenoids completely loyal to those people on Earth. We better watch our step around those people."

From what Ryo saw, that did not seem to be the case. If not for the fact that the three officers were standing at attention, he would have sworn they were having a heated argument. "You think so?"

"I read about it in Angler. C'mon, let's go." The three of them moved on, down the passageway into the Merrimack, but Ryo stopped after a moment abd lingered here for a few moments out of curiosity. He watched them more intently, quietly moved closer to them, moving about as inconspicuously as possible to hear what was said. When he was close enough he stood with his back half turned to them, staring up at one of the monitors over his head as if reading departure information while he watched the four of them out of the corner of his eye. 

With the boastful energy of the Admiral's voice, eaves dropping was hardly a difficult thing from almost any distance. "... but as for your request," He continued, "In the first place it's not at all proper for you to be making these inquiries. You know this project is classified, and even those most directly involved are on a strictly need-to-know basis."

"Yes, but sit..."

"Your answer, Lieutenant Wilson," He cut her off again, "Is you do not need to know, so stop wasting my time."

The little officer with the red hair was very obviously hiding some hidden malice behind her blank stare. Judging from the subtleties of her body language, Ryo sensed a violent temper behind the uniform. "Admiral, with all due respect, I think I'm entitled to know what's going on with those kids. They may be just test subjects to you, but they're still people, people I care about and don't want to see anything happen to them. Can't you at least tell me if they're alright?"

The admiral shook his head again, his stubborn expression not wavering even slightly. "I can't even tell you if they ever existed to begin with. You already know that, I don't know why you keep asking." The admiral took a step forward and placed his hand warmly on her shoulder. Ryo watched her entire body visibly stiffen up as if it were about to explode. "I'm sorry Lieutenant, but Project N was a complete failure. We're grateful for your participation, but it's time to put it behind us..." in the blink of an eye, his entire faced changed its shape, taking on the form of a surreal, somehow perverse grin. "Funny, isn't it? I seem to be offering you that advice more and more these days."

As if a switch had been thrown in his head, Ryo felt a burst of energy in his skull. If was as if someone were holding a block of concrete against his brain and squashing it against the inside of his skull. It was a constant, visceral kind of repulsion that filled him with the urge to run to the bathroom and puke. He wondered for a moment if this conversation was putting out some weird vibe he was picking up on, until he looked up at them again and saw that the other two officers standing next to her were both trembling; they were feeling the same thing he was. It reminded him of something Brian had told him once, some Contolist mysticism...

Lieutenant Wilson calmly brushed his hand off her shoulder and took one long, slow breath to calm her temper. Everything about this man in front of her appeared to be designed to provoke her. "Admiral," she said slowly, "I HAVE put it behind me. It's ancient history."

He smiled at her again, a serpent's smile full of mischief and selfishness. "There's my good girl..."

Ryo felt something brush against the side of his face. He jerked away from it, more than a little startled, and came around to find Alice floating next to him with her arms outstretched, looking for him. "There you are! What are you doing hanging around here?! Captain Eisen needs you to launch in a Ball!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Ryo could see all four of them turn their attention his way. Alice was talking much louder than normal and there didn't seem to be a reason for it. "What's going on out there?" He said, lowering his voice as a hint.

"Minovsky particles went through the roof! There's something weird happening at Acheron Colony and the Captain wants to be prepared for anything!" She said this just short of a full holler, but when Ryo looked back he noticed a relieved expression on the face of the redhead. He didn't bother to say anything else, just lead Alice back into the passageway to the Merrimack, but glanced back one last time as the doors closed behind him.

Lieutenant Wilson glanced his way as well, but more than anything noticed the little girl with the shifty eyes and the artificially noisy voice. _Perfect timing, kid..._ she thought to herself, "If you'll excuse me Admiral, I think we better look into this."

"By all means." Admiral Dyson saluted them and allowed them to step back. Lieutenant Wilson did not salute back. She feared very seriously that if she allowed either of her arms to move that freely, one of them might accidentally draw her sidearm and sink a bullet into his brain.

  


_- 1431 hours (CST) -_  
Side 6 was famous for its secure surroundings and placid existence, ideal for someone looking to start a family or else just live out their lives in peace. Throughout the One Year War it had been the colony to sustain the least amount of damage and end up with the largest surviving population. Even after the Delaz Rebellion, the people of Side 6 still managed to retain their calm detachment from the entire war situation almost to the point of cold indifference. This was the reason why it was so unusual to hear so much panic on the frequencies of the local defense forces. There had been no mention of any warships or mobile suits to be specific, but there was talk of some kind of commotion building up near Acheron Colony a few thousand kilometers Earthward of Libot. Captain Tetsuo Shiden hadn't seen and heard enough not to be overly concerned with this, then again the rising Minovsky density in the area was enough to make him suspicious. Thirty years of naval experience worked against him; he had to remind himself once again that the world had changed so much in the past four years. 

He ran his fingers through his graying hair and again checked the data board. "Comm, we need to sort out all that radio chatter. Think you can give me a strait answer?"

"No sir. There's something weird going on over there, but there's too much intereference. I'm only getting bits and pieces of it."

"Minovsky particles don't scatter themselves. Get me an answer and quickly!"

Lieutenant Francis Grissom and Eric Swanson were on the bridge, leaning passively against a railing staring out the window into the blackness of space. Libot colony rotated slowly nearby, occasionally lighting up the hull of the Midway class assault carrier with a glimmer from one of its colony mirrors. "I wouldn't worry sir." Grissom said boredly, relaxing as a pattern of light from the colony danced over his face. "If it was that big a deal we would have noticed something by now. Let the defense forces sort it out."

"That may be true, but... I've got a bad feeling about this, Fran." Captain Shiden remembered back to the One Year War. It was that same feeling he'd had just before Char Aznable attacked Luna-II in an attempt to capture White Base, which was the origin of his nickname "Shining Shiden." Since then it had become more of a curse than a gift; every time he had this feeling, someone on his crew died. And the last time he had felt something like this was during Operation Stardust, only minutes before Ensign Ibanez and And Ensign Omar were shot down over Konpei Island... "Naomi and Lucy aren't back from the colony yet. I want you two to check this one out." 

Lieutenant Swanson had been afraid he would say something like that. "Why us? We could send one of the recon pilots in a core fighter."

"I don't think that would be appropriate to the situation. Francis, be sure to take your sniper rifle with you, and for crissakes TRY to keep your distance this time."

Francis groaned boredly and appealed to the old man, "Captain, we're in the middle of Side 6. What could possibly go wrong out here that you'd need us for?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be sending you would I?" Shiden shot the Lieutenant a look of 'Don't talk back to me boy', ending the conversation right there. 

Francis shrugged and headed off to the MS deck, but Eric waited for a moment before speaking again. "Captain... You know something don't you?"

"Admiral Carter instructed us to pay attention to intuition, right? Project N may be ancient history, but I've got a funny feeling and I'm not about to ignore it."

"Captain... Is this the same feeling you had before Gato...?" The Captain shot him a powerful glance, almost knocking Eric agaisnt the bulkhead with the intensity of his stare. "Alright, alright, we'll check it out. But I bet whatever's going on will probably be over by the time we get there."

_I sure hope so,_ the Captain said, looking up at the radar dome for any sign of useable data.

  
_- 1451 hours (CST) -_  
Ryo had to admit, he had really a funny feeling about Acheron colony. Something about this just seemed dangerous, like there was an air of hostility around the entire situation. There didn't seem to be any real reason to worry, but the feeling had been growing in his bones ever since he came back to the Merrimac with Alice. He never did think of himself as a newtype or anything even remotely similar, but it stood to reason that maybe it was more than just a feeling. "Brian, what do you think's going on out there?" He said, slipping into his flight suit near the ship's hangar.

"I don't know, but I got a weird feeling about this."

"Yeah, me too." 

They drifted down the corridor to the two massive airlock hatches and slipped through the inner doors to the hatch of the RB-79 Ball. Ryo slipped into his machine and immediately powered it up, but to his lack of surprise, Brian found Alice sitting in the opening to his cockpit, running her fingers over the plastic textured pages of her book while Kelly closed up part of the instrument panel had been adjusting. He gave Brian the thumbs-up to show that it was ready and then pushed off the side of the Ball towards the inner door of the airlock. "Sorry to boot you Alice, duty calls." He pushed past her into the machine and powered it up.

"Hey Brian, can I come with you this time? You know, like we used to do in your labor pod back before the war..."

"Nah, you're too big for that now. Besides, if things get messy you'd be alot safer here on the ship."

Brian pushed her away, but Alice clung to his arm before she drifted too far. "You need me!"

"How do I need you?"

"I bring you luck!"

Brian chuckled at the comment. "That's why you have to stay here! The ship needs more luck than I do." 

"Yeah, but..."

"Relax already, Ryo's with me."

Brian pushed her towards the inner hatch, and this time she let herself float towards it. "Don't leave me with that skirt-chasing lunatic! He molests small children and stinks like rotten fish!"

Kelly popped up in the inner door of the airlock and self-consciously wiped a grease-spot off his forehead. "I heard that."

"You smell it now? He's stinking up the whole compartment!"

"I'm a mechanic! I can't help it!" Kelly grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the airlock so Brian could close the inner door in the airlock. "You better be nice to me or I won't buy you anymore ice cream," He closed the inner hatch and the giant compartment started to depressurize. Brian laughed to himself briefly and opened the outer door to leave the ship.

"You know, she does have a point about the luck." Ryo said on the radio line. "Think about it. If it wasn't for that walking sympathy magnet that is your kid-sister, neither one of us would ever get laid."

Brian laughed again as the docking clamps released. "Duly noted. Alice isn't good for much else anyway."

A single thought burst into his mind with a violent energy, ringing in his head almost hard enough to split it open. _I HEARD THAT!_

_I was joking! Calm down!_ Brian checked his systems again and switched over to external radio. "Contact Code 11."

" Code 11, copy that." Ryo said, after a moment muttered to himself, "It's always code 11..."

In the Tarawa, Alice groaned indignantly and let Kelly drag her on down the corridor towards the MS hangar. "Those perverts... Kelly, remind me to kick my brother right in the balls when he gets back."

Kelly whipped out a tiny notebook from his pocket and jotted down a note for later. "Kick Brian in pills... got it."

  
_- 1501 hours (CST) -_   
Lieutenant Grissom's GM Sniper-II was approaching Acheron colony at last, but he was still not sure just what exactly was going on. Several GM Commandos scrambled from the bay block of the colony and spread out in all directions, firing apparently at random into empty space. He could tell from the radio traffic that the GM pilots around the colony had yet to identify their attacker, and there were reports of anywhere between one and eight mobile suits somewhere in the area. He scanned around for a few moments, focusing on a more narrow field of vision until he spotted a flash of verniers, a mobile suit of some kind, moving so quickly he could barely follow it. Two GMs opened fire on it as it came near them, and Francis watched the unidentified machine throw itself around the sky like a horsefly dodging a swatter. "Damn that thing's fast!" He said, feeling a cold sweat standing on his forehead. He scanned ahead for a moment to try and lock on, but the suit was too far away even for his sniper rifle to get an accurate shot at this speed. As he watched from a distance, the enemy mobile suit fired a few quick shots at the GMs as it passed them, all its beams passing directly between their legs without actually hitting them. One GM managed to press the issue and move directly in to its path, but a quick series of blasts from the enemy beam rifle shot off both arms and its head as it swept by underneath it. The enemy pilot pulled off a quick victory roll in space and started to come around for another pass. "He's just playing with us! He's like the Red Comet or something!" Francis pursued the suit at full throttle, but it kept its distance from him no matter how hard he pushed his thrusters. "Grissom to all units, enemy mobile suit confirmed! Damn thing's so fast I can barely keep up with it!"

Eric got the signal at the same moment the Captain received it on the bridge. His Gundam was halfway between Acheron and Libot now, and Eric could already see the hints of battle magnified on the panoramic monitor. "Sit tight, Fran! I'll be there in just a second!"

Francis followed the suit in a wide loop around the edge of the colony, keeping his radar and laser targeting systems turned off to avoid tipping off the enemy. He could just barely make out the shape of it in the distance, but already it resembled no mobile suit type he had ever seen before. And even as he watched, it fired off three bursts from its beam rifle, shooting the arms off one of the GMs and crushing it with the third. "Shit... I'm gonna have to engage him, Eric!" Almost the instant he locked on, the mobile suit spun around and fired two shots over his head. Francis barely managed to duck under them in time, but to his dismay the enemy suit stayed locked onto him and kept up the firing in a vicious barrage. Francis found himself back-boosting to put more distance between them, but the father away he tried to get the close the enemy suit came to him.

Eric's Gundam appeared out of nowhere behind the enemy suit aimed its beam rifle, but before he could even open fire the mobile suit spun around on him and fired a single grenade out of its forearm. Eric dodged left, but the explosion knocked him into a spin as he fell behind the chase. For just a brief instant, Eric got a good look at his enemy; some kind of Gelgoog variant in crimson-red paint with massive shoulder binders apparently packed solid with verniers. "Wait your turn, Gundam! I'll finish your sniper off first!"

From the sound of the pilot, he couldn't have been more than fourteen-years-old. He could see Francis moving around behind him trying to get a rear aspect shot, and he knew he needed to distract the pilot for just a few seconds. "Who are you?! What are you doing here?!"

"What kinda question is that? I thought that was obvious!" He aimed the beam rifle without even looking and fired a single blast strait at the GM Sniper, shooting off the right arm at the shoulder along with the beam rifle. Eric fired several bursts from his beam rifle, but the Regelg answered back by putting a burst of mega particles strait through his knee. The loss of one leg killed off half of his maneuvering ability, but he just managed to turn around again to engage. He watched the Regelg swoop in towards Francis' mobile suit, slap the beam saber out of its arm as it drew near, and with a strong wave of its arm cut the suit in half at the waist. The GM Sniper lingered for just a moment before the two halves of it exploded, and in the brilliance of the fireball the Regelg disappeared completely. He checked all around him in case it had circled behind him somehow, but then he caught a tiny flicker of light moving in the distance, headed strait for Libot Colony. Eric started to double back when his computer picked up a second target... not just one, two large objects far too massive to be a mobile suit. He already knew what to expect before he looked at it, and so wasn't surprised when his computer magnified the image of a pair of Musai class cruisers swooping into the area with mobile suit bays open. "Swanson to Tarawa, you've got incoming! Get those mobile suits launched now!"

_  
- 1522 hours (CST) -_  
The last of the three GMs shot down the catapult line and roared out of the open bay block to meet the enemy assault while the eight RB-79s from the two cruisers took position just in front of the hatch. The front of the vessel was just approaching the opening when two Zakus appeared out of the void and opened fire at long range, striking one of the Balls with the first shots and damaging the one next to it. The six remaining fired back in one massive salvo, but the Zeon suit was ready for it and moving to evade before it came. His next few shots were much less accurate, as were the shells from the other Zaku, but Ryo knew that made them no less dangerous. "Two enemy suits, front of bay block! They're trying to ambush the cruisers on launch!"

Captain Eisen was trying to keep his voice calm, but at times like this it was a hard thing to do. "Ball pilots, pull back into the bay block! Use the hatch for cover if you have to, just keep shooting!" The bow of the Merrimac cleared the opening of the colony as he spoke and the ship's two forward guns started firing at the Zeon suits. The Zakus watched their step now, outgunned and out manned, pulling back out of range of the Salamis cruiser. 

Ryo and Brian each fired another salvo from their cannons before they saw a massive explosion off to the side and a Lieutenant Dyson calling in panic, "Shiniji's hit! There's a sniper out there!"

Captain Eisen chipped a tooth from biting down too hard. "Lexington Ball unit, cover the GMs!"

"We're going with em! C'mon, Brian!" Ryo fired his thrusters and surged out of the bay block towards the GM battle, followed shortly by Brian and two other RB-79s from the cruiser Lexington. They moved as quickly as they could around the bay block, but almost immediately came under fire from a pair of Zakus hugging the side of the colony mirror. One Ball took a direct hit in the cockpit, the other lost its grappler before it could return fire. Ryo acted purely on reflex, lined up a shot and squeezed the trigger. The shell struck the Zaku dead in the chest, and the mobile suit immediately went limp and began floating freely in space. "Scratch one Zaku!"

"Great shot, Ryo! Dyson, you reported a sniper?"

Ricardo Dyson's GM was crouched down behind another one of the mirror panels firing into empty space with its machinegun. Even as they watched, something in the far distance fired back with a massively powerful energy beam, blowing off an entire section of the colony's outer wall with one shot. "Can't figure it out! That's a battleship cannon but it moves like a damn mobile armor!"

Brian and Ryo moved behind the mirror next to him and the other two Balls took positions higher up away from the colony. "Where's he sniping from?"

"I don't know! He's just... out there!" Lieutenant Parson's GM came into view, maneuvering insanely out in space and likewise firing into nothingness with her beam gun. "April, you're wide open! You wanna get killed or something?!"

"He's trying to keep us away from the East end of the colony! That carrier's calling for support, we need to get over there!"

Dyson swallowed hard and reloaded his machinegun. "Alright, put down covering fire! Lay it on thick!"

All four of the Balls and Rico's GM peaked out from behind the mirror panel just enough to lay down a thick barrage of fire at the tiny flicker of light dancing around in the distance. Ryo only got off one shot before the enemy's beam cannon fired again, this time, blasting strait through the colony mirror, vaporizing the hip armor on Dyson's GM and destroying the joint of its left leg. He ducked back under cover for just a moment, but then he felt something truly bizarre. Somewhere in his mind's eye, Ryo could see the enemy mobile suit perfectly well. He could see the pilot too, in surprising detail, right down to the insignia on the shoulders of her normal suit. On impulse he burst out from under cover and surged into open space, and suddenly something caught his attention. He could see the enemy suit, some kind of supercharged Rickdom with a huge shoulder cannon, and somehow, as if seeing an afterimage in reverse, he could tell exactly where that mobile suit was about to move and what it was going to do. It just seemed so obvious now he couldn't fathom ignoring it. "Piece 'a cake..." He aimed his cannon right at the ghost image ahead of his target and, praying, squeezed the trigger.

The Rickdom had April's GM in its sights, not even noticing the little Ball that so boldly jumped out from concealment just alittle out of the sight of its sniper scope. The pilot also failed to notice the firing of a single 180mm shell from the battle pod, but instead moved directly into its path just in time for it to smash into her armor and rip the right arm away at the shoulder. The cannon was much too big to be aimed with just one arm, and she knew she was no longer a part of this battle. "Damn it all... Duncan, I'm taking damage! I'm gonna have to retreat!"

Duncan sounded noticeably anxious about the message, a very clear blow to his confidence in the mission. "Are you shitting me?! Vanessa, I got bead on a Pegasus class and it's loaded with Gundams! That has to be the one we've been looking for!"

Another shell hit the Rickdom, this one glancing off her armor at an acute angle and not doing too much damage. She saw two Zakus move up the side of the colony to engage them, but the little pods destroyed one of them the instant it came into range and drove the other away into space. "The support unit's taking heavy losses! Hurry up and get some data on it!"

Duncan wasn't at all happy with this situation, but decided today probably wasn't his lucky day anyway. In any case, it was time to test out his new birthday present. "Thanks for nothing, Sis!" He grumbled bitterly. "Fine then, I'll do it all myself..." He turned his gaze back towards the Federation assault carrier just as its forward MS hatches opened ahead of him. Two more mobile suits launched from the ship, both of them Gundams. His computer identified them almost immediately. "Newtype pilots, Alex-type Gundams... Is it him?" His computer flashed a warning on his screen: another Gundam was locking on from behind him and a single Guncannon was locking on from below. "Trying to surround me?" He closed the distance to the two Gundams closer to the ship, but left a spread of mini-missiles in his wake to take care of the Gundam behind him. It's pilot slowed its approach and cleared a path with its head vulcans, but by the time he was through the Regelg was already diving in towards the Tarawa. "Maybe this'll be easier than I thought..." 

The assault carrier opened fire with it's defensive guns just as the two Gundams moved up to engage it. The Regelg ignored the ship for now, instead focusing on the Gundam where it sensed the most pressure. He fired several quick bursts from the beam rifle, and was satisfied to see the Gundam predicting all of his moves well in advance. But then it steadied itself and fired back; suddenly satisfaction turned into frustration as the beam shot off a piece of his left leg before he could dodge. He fired back with his own rifle, but two more blasts from the Gundam struck the Regelg in the torso and his computer indicated a momentary drop in reactor output. "Goddamn Titans..." His systems recovered quickly, but now he reminded himself to be more careful. "He's too fast... that's gotta be Amuro Ray!" 

Lieutenant Wilson would have thought this fight would have ended after the third hit; either the pilot would back off or the mobile suit would be dead. Instead, the enemy suit seemed to be revving up for another attack. Yet another sick twist to an already lousy day. "Lucy, split left! See if you can circle behind him!" Lieutenant Matsui's Gundam split off to one side and Wilson locked onto the suit and took aim again. She fired two more shots, but this time the Regelg dodged them completely. "This pilot's too quick! He's just like the Red Comet!"

Matsui's Gundam came around the rear flank of the Regelg and opened fire as well, along with the Guncannon and Lieutenant Jenson's Gundam finally coming back into range. The Regelg twisted itself in a bizarre position and slipped between all their fire, then added some pressure from its engines and to get out of their collective lines of fire. "This is no good. And my beam rifle's almost dead, I'd better..." He sensed an attack behind him and spun around quickly, sidestepping a double-blast from the Guncannon and firing back with with its beam rifle. The Guncannon dodged the first shot but second one blew off the left leg just below the knee and the third one destroyed it's head. A whistle from his control panel warned him the beam rifle was out of power, so the Regelg drew one of its beam sabers and started to close in. "I have to at least shoot down ONE of em..." The three Gundams all opened fire at once, but Duncan charged through it boldly, closed in for the kill with saber in hand. 

And all of them stopped, holding motionless in space like deer caught in the headlights of a semi. Duncan found himself petrified in his cockpit, unable to move. He felt a power washing over him, a force invading his mind with such intensity he felt like his brain might turn to ash. The four of the Gundam pilots felt it as well, frozen solid in cockpits with their minds completely locked up. Not far away, Ryo and Brian stopped just as they entered firing range, utterly fixated on the strange energy burning through their brains. Even on the Tarawa, the crewmen and turret gunners were locked in place, many of them cringed in discomfort as if someone were screaming into a bullhorn next to their heads. 

It was in the Merrimac's mobile suit hangar where the feeling was the most intense. Kelly and the other mechanics milled around in a daze, clutched thier skulls in one simultaneous migraine. The source of it seemed so powerful, yet so focused and discrete at the same time, and none of them could figure out just who or what was the cause. Kelly could barely breathe from the power of it crushing him from all sides, and he found himself clinging to anything in sight and grinding his teeth into sand. "God damn! Where the hell is that coming from?!" And then, out of the corner of his eye he saw Alice, standing perfectly still on the deck and staring up at the ceiling. As he watched her, she began to glow in the light of a strange radiant aura that intensified with every moment.

In his position in space, the Regelg turned slowly towards the colony, fixing his gaze on the Merrimac as it approached from the other side of the colony. No one was firing anymore, even the mobile suits were all perfectly still, trapped in the gripping force of this energy. He could see the strange glow even through the hull of the ship, beaming at him through the bow like a giant lighthouse, and momentarily he found he could not tear his eyes away from it. "What's going on here? That almost feels like..."

In response to his question, a voice exploded in his head. _Who's the asshole trying to start a battle near a peaceful colony?! If you wanna fight so badly, come and fight ME!_

Duncan didn't need to hear it twice. He immediately reversed course and powered away from the ship as fast as his Refined Gelgoog could carry him. As he abandoned his one kill for the day, Duncan couldn't help but look back at the strange conclusion to his days work. "Who the hell was that?! I've never felt anything like it!"

Most of the other Federation officers nearby would have been perfectly willing to agree with him. Even as they watched the Regelg speed away as they struggled to collect their own garbled thoughts. Lieutenant Wilson was not among them; her attention the Merrimac where she had seen that bizarre glow beaming to her through the hull of the ship. She had seen this before and she knew exactly what it was, but she had never in her life felt that kind of power, not even in Admiral Dyson's outlandish simulations. With the rest of the mobile suit team still reeling from the effect of it, Naomi opened a channel to the bridge of the Merrimac and found a room full of somewhat perplexed officers staring at the screen in a daze. "This is Lieutenant Commander Naomi Wilson of the 108th Mobile Suit Team. Requesting permission to land."

Captain Eisen still appeared shaken by everything that had just taken place, but in his condition wasn't about to put up an argument. "Permission granted, Lieutenant. Come aboard."


	3. Chapter 2: Baby Doll

__

The human woman is, by nature, a business woman; her various gifts are most effective when applied to tasks that require constructive leadership. 

- Zeon Zum Daikun

* * *

**Chapter 2: Baby Doll**

_- February 2, UC 0084 -  
- 1940 hours (CST) -  
_ It had been almost twenty minutes since they'd been ordered to report to the briefing room, and at least fifteen minutes since both of them showed up next to the door. The two visitors from the assault carrier Tarawa were already inside, but as Brian had said and Ryo strongly agreed it was better to make them wait for whatever it was they wanted before going in to talk to them. But after fifteen minutes, Ryo was starting to feel the strain of impatience. He took a few more breaths to calm his nerves and leaned against the bulkhead next to the door. "Okay, tell me again, who are these people?"

Brian was tired of repeating himself, but he could understand why he was nervous. "Lieutenant Commander Wilson and some Japanese chick. Couple of ace pilots from that assault carrier we were talking about."

"What do they want with us?"

"How should I know?"

Ryo cleared his throat again and shifted his weight anxiously. "What would the Titans want with a couple of guys like us?"

"Actually, I think this is probably my fault. The new censorship laws make it a Federal offense to be caught with a copy of Daikun's book."

"I thought you had it memorized?"

"I keep the book for people who don't believe it."

Ryo smirked slightly. "People like me."

"Yeah, people like you." Brian looked at his watch again and stretched his neck from side to side. "What time is it?" 

Ryo glanced at his watch. "Eighteen minutes, now."

"I think we kept her waiting long enough. Let's get this over with." Brian stepped past him and tapped the switch on the front of the door. Both of them stepped inside one after another into the briefing room and stopped to look around briefly. Ryo immediately recognized the two officers waiting for him, the girl with the red hair and an extremely thin Asian woman with a faint scar across her cheek. He wasn't really surprised to see it was them who came to talk to him, but he couldn't help but be curious just what they wanted with them in the first place. "You wanted to speak with us?"

"Have a seat." The red head gestured to the chairs in the briefing room. Ryo and Brian looked at the chairs, then back at the two officers before them. Lieutenant Wilson shot a kind of 'I told you so' glance at the woman next to her. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Naomi Wilson, commanding officer of the 108th Mobile Suit Team on the assault carrier Tarawa."

__

Titans. I hate Titans. Brian kept his expression level and kept the loathing out of his voice. "Are we under arrest or something?"

Wilson glanced again at the officer behind her, and she handed them a large brown envelop stuffed with papers. "I'm here to make you two and offer you'd be stupid to turn down. I could just go behind your backs on this one, but that seems too much like something the Titans would do."

Brian scoffed at the remark. "Right. We don't wanna be like the Titans, now do we?"

"No, we don't."

Ryo took the papers out of the envelop and flipped through them shortly. There wasn't anything like a mission plan or a tactical summary for an operation, only technical data regarding some highly advanced mobile suits. "GM Sniper Customs, Guncannon MP Types..." He came to the last page finally and his jaw fell open. "No way! Gundam-class?!"

"The Gundam's G-4 variant, we call it Alpha Gundam. It's a derivative of the prototypes they were working with during the war for newtype pilots."

"Newtypes? What are you talking about?"

Naomi slowed down, realizing she was getting far ahead of herself. "I was observing your performance during the battle today. I'm sure the two of you noticed that strange energy phenomenon that drove away that enemy mobile suit,"

Ryo slapped the papers down on the table next to him. "Hell yeah, we noticed it! You think that had something to do with us?"

"Actually, I KNOW the two of you were behind it. That kind of power can't be generated by any one person."

"But how...?"

"Lieutenant Izumi, the Tarawa was put into service after the cancellation of a project designed to develop newtype weapons for the Titans. Most if not all of the ship's crew are newtypes themselves. Therefore, we have a rather sharp understanding into the nature of newtype phenomenon like this." 

"I don't follow you, Lieutenant."

Naomi decided to slow down a bit more. "Every newtype for 100 miles filled their pants when you put out that energy wave, including, it seems, a few crewmen right here on the Merrimac. We already know that someone on this ship was behind that energy and I am convinced it's the two of you."

There was something terribly dishonest behind her words. She seemed friendly enough at a glance, but Brian could sense something else inside her that made him nervous. Despite what anything she might say, he had the strongest impression that she wasn't actually interested in either of them at all. "What's the catch?" He said suspiciously.

"Catch?"

"You don't get asked to join the Titans unless you've got something they want. What's your price, exactly?"

"Basically, your identity gets scrubbed from official records and you get diplomatic immunity pretty much anywhere in the Federation except some parts of Jaburo. Basically that means you're not subject to Federal law and you won't have to pay taxes anymore."

"Is THAT all?" Brian shot a glance at Ryo, trying to resist a smirk. Of all the conditions for joining a new unit, she had somehow named the one that made them happier. "Completely untraceable? No one can find us?"

"You'd both be completely anonymous. And best yet, you wouldn't officially be part of the Titans." Brian was smiling now. The prospect of simply disappearing from official records had crossed both of their minds a number of times before. She knew this as well as anyone, but she also knew it would take alittle more than that to get them onboard. "As it happens, we're also short a couple of pilots. We never replaced out losses from Operation Stardust, and just yesterday that enemy ace shot down one of our snipers. We've got two replacement mobile suits coming in on the next transport, and I think you'll fit in just nicely. What do you say?"

"Just a second," Ryo took Brian aside and whispered in his ear. "What we're facing, old buddy, is the moral dilemma. If we say no, we're stuck on the Merrimac with Flying Coffins, and maybe Eisen will give us a promotion for such a pretty job painting the hull. If we say yes, we both fly a Gundam, our records disappear, and we get paid to push people around for a change..."

Brian nodded. "That's a tough one. Lemme think about it." Brian turned around again and cleared his throat. "I need two things taken care of. First of all, there's Kelly."

"Who?"

"Sergeant Kelly Amonte. He's one of the best mechanics I've ever seen and I wouldn't trust anyone else with my mobile suit. I want him transferred along with us."

Ryo was surprised at first, mainly because he had forgotten about it himself. As much as he himself was excited at the concept of piloting a mobile suit as powerful as a Gundam, he knew Kelly would probably castrate himself just to touch one. _Good call, Brian._

"I'll see what I can do. What's the other?"

"I need some assurances that my sister will be taken care of. I don't want to leave her alone here but I don't expect you'd have room on an assault carrier for a little kid..."

Naomi nodded, and Brian recognized that somehow she had been expecting this. "Your service record made special mention of it. Don't worry, there's plenty of room for a nine-year-old civilian. Anna will be just fine..."

Alice growled in annoyance, slouched in her chair in the back of the room. "That name's Alice. And I'm thirteen."

Naomi did a double take at the sound of it. She was 100% sure this room was empty when she first came in... "How'd you get in here?"

"Through the door."

"No, I mean..." She took a step closer to Brian, "Did you know she was sitting there listening to us?"

"Of course. She's involved in this, she has a right to know what's going on." Brian turned to her slowly. "What do you think about all this? I know how you feel about the Titans..."

"What difference does that make? The uniforms all look the same to me anyway."

Naomi couldn't contain herself anymore, she decided not to wait until later. "Lieutenant, let's get one thing straight: we're a counter intelligence division, it's our duty to know exactly how the colonies feel about as and the Titans, but we don't defend them or even condone their actions. You have to understand, we don't exactly take pride in the work we do."

Alice rolled her eyes at the statement. "If you don't like being Titans bus-boys, why are you cooperating in the first place? If you really have a problem with it, you should just use your own free will."

Naomi sighed distantly; for just an instant Ryo saw that same look on her face as she had in the spaceport with Admiral Dyson. "We all have our reasons, kid. Your brother should understand that better than anyone."_  
_

- February 3, UC 0084 -  
- 0950 hours (CST) -   
Aguile Delaz has been called "The Ghost of Gihren Zabi." By that rationale, Admiral Francis Marquis could have been called "The Ghost of Kishiria Zabi", which is ironic in a way considering that he stood a mighty 7 foot 3 and weighed slightly over 600 pounds; some say he actually bore a closer physical resemblance to Duke Degwin Zabi. This former Captain of the Zeon Newtype Corp had been ordered by Kishiria herself to remain at Granada no matter what, even if Abau-Aqu should fall. What they hadn't counted on was the prospect the Kishiria herself would be killed in the battle, and that Zeon would surrender that same day. 

Almost two years ago, with the imminent installment of Haman Khan as regent of Mineva Zabi, Admiral Marquis and his fleet parted with Axis for the last time, pilfering several prototype mobile suits from the production sector and packing their bags for the Earth sphere. At around the time as the Delaz Declaration in 0083, the Marquis Fleet moved into its new hiding place inside the cylinder of a wrecked colony, completely hidden from the prying eyes of Federal reconnaissance. All twenty ships of the fleet held a loyalty only to Admiral Marquis and, much like their former leader Kishiria, had developed a bitter dislike of Gihren Zabi and his followers over the years. For this reason, the Marquis Fleet had refused to participate in Operation Stardust, choosing instead to follow their own less radical agenda. 

Similarly, Delaz had known nothing of the prototype mobile suits in his arsenal, such as the one carried by the Musai class cruiser Balenea as it approached the wreckage of Bunch 39 in Side 2. The recon mission to Side 6 had ended very badly for the Zeon, especially in terms of the near-even kill ratio and the damage to both of the advanced prototypes during the fight. Duncan took it the worse out of everyone involved, and didn't manage to finish offloading his mobile suit until early the next morning after the ship returned to port. With all the luster of a funeral procession, Duncan moved his mobile suit to the battleship Ganges where Francis Marquis awaited his arrival. He landed in the MS deck of the Gwazine class ship and headed strait for the bridge, and when he arrived his face was frozen in a sullen, half depressed expression. "Reporting, Admiral." He said quietly.

"What's the matter Duncan? Don't like your new toy?" Marquis teased him, his rumbling voice like an earthquake in his throat.

Duncan shifted his weight awkwardly. "Sorry, Pop. I screwed up."

"With what? Your mission was to collect data on the Feddy warships. You did manage to do THAT didn't you?" Admiral Marquis stood up from his chair and dropped one massive hand on his son's head. "What are you so tense about?"

"There was a warship there, a Pegasus class. There were four Alex-class mobile suits onboard..."

"That would be a Titan's vessel. Obviously one of their special units." Admiral Marquis led Duncan off the bridge and walked along side him in the corridor. Even at almost half his father's size, Duncan always felt like a giant when the man was around.

"Pop, I think we're gona have a problem with this one. Their mobile suits weren't that impressive, and their defenses were basically nothing, but when I got ready to take that one shot…"

"What? Happened?"

Duncan blushed. "Well… There was this girl…"

Admiral Marquis stopped in the hall, draping his massive arm over his son's shoulders. "Ohhhhhh... A girl huh? Tell me about her. What's she like?"

"I don't know. I didn't see her directly. I sensed her on one of the support cruisers."

"Sensed her? Have you met this girl before?"

"I don't think so."

Marquis grinned. "I must be getting old. My little Duncan goes out in his mobile suit chasing Feddy skirts!"

"That's not what happened! She was… Pop she's got incredible power!"

Marquis stopped smiling. "What, she's a newtype?"

"That's what's bugging me! They were ALL newtypes! But this girl was… you can't imagine what it was like! It was like her mind reached out and kicked me right in the ass!"

Admiral Marquis changed direction now, leading Duncan to the MS deck instead of his quarters. "You think she could be more powerful that Amuro Ray?"

"No doubt in my mind. I've never felt anything like it, not even from Haman!"

Marquis sighed. "Ah, puppy love. You're growing up so fast!" He slapped the boy on the back, almost knocking him over.

Duncan was mildly amused by the way his father teased him, but couldn't help but worry that the old man was not taking him seriously. In any case, he decided to change the subject. "So when do we begin the operation?"

"It won't be long now. We're just waiting on confirmation from Major Cunningham that all of our arrangements are in position."

"Cunningham?" Duncan rolled his eyes is pure disgust. "Why do we count on him so much? I can't stand that guy."

"Dieter's the kind of man who thinks whatever you want him to think. That makes him extremely valuable."

Duncan looked at his Regelg, resting in the hangar under the watchful eye of the mechanics. "That's why I don't like him. He likes to follow orders so much that he doesn't care where they come from. I'd keep an eye on him if I were you."

Admiral Marquis chuckled playfully. "Oh, you're just mad because he's in love with your sister."

Once again, Duncan wondered if he was taking things too lightly. "Sometimes I worry about you Pop..." He scanned the hangar until he found the Vanessa's blood red mobile suit, leaning up against the wall while the mechanics worked to replace the machine's destroyed left arm. He had always wondered why they didn't just plate her Rickdom Sniper Custom with Luna-Titanium like his Regelg, but Vanessa never seemed to see the point of it. "Hey sis!" He called out, hoping to draw her out of concealment.

"Hey Duncan," Vanessa poked her head out of the cockpit for a moment to see where they were coming from. "How'd you guys do out there? I heard you had a bit of a rough time after I pulled out."

"You could say that. I had some trouble with a…"

"Pegasus class, yeah I heard. Hey, what's this I hear about you getting crushes on little Feddy girls? Planning your next conquest or what?" 

"I don't have a crush on her!" Duncan shouted, pulling himself into the cockpit to yell at her face to face.

Vanessa smiled and kissed him on the forehead. "Calm down, Duncan, you're going to burn out if you don't learn to loosen up some times." She handed him an armload of circuit boards and went back to working on her cockpit. "So, what's she like? This girlfriend of yours?"

Duncan blushed again. "Well… she has a warm feeling to her, almost like you do, only a lot stronger. But for some reason…" Duncan scratched his head as he tried to think of a way to express his feelings. "…I feel this really strong urge... I feel like I really NEED to kill her."

Vanessa nodded. "That's becaue you feel threatened by her."

"Threatened? This kid scares the hell outa me! She makes Char Aznable look like Kai Shiden!"

Admiral Marquis appeared outside the cockpit, his face still full of humor and playfulness. "We'll flag the ship's IFF code next time we see it. I won't let anyone else bother your girlfriend until you get close to third base." Admiral Marquis couldn't help but laugh again.

Duncan rolled his eyes. "Guys, this is now joke. I'm dead serious, we need to destroy that ship as soon as possible."

  
_- 0950 hours (CST) -_  
Monsha was trying his best to stay awake for this briefing, but it was getting harder by the minute. Bate and Adel were, as usual, perfectly alert and focused, but every couple seconds Monsha would yawn and slowly nod off in his seat until Jamaican rose his voice a bit at some point of his endless lecture. He knew he needed to keep his eyes open, but he couldn't seem to motivate himself to consciousness. And then, drifting again into sleep, his eyes saw the door open and Captain Bosque Ohm walk into the room; suddenly Monsha was wide awake. Anyone knew Bosque's tried and trusted reaction to anything and everything that irritated him: anyone near him was liable to get punched in the face. 

Jamaican seemed to notice the improvement, and much to Monsha's dismay, Bosque seemed to notice his sudden surge of attention as well. He tried to focus himself and tune in to the rest of the briefing. "...the target colony is known to be harboring a large number of soldiers and mobile suits who were loyal to the former Duchy of Zeon. The mobile suits are officially commissioned with their defense force, but with some of the post-war resource shortages in the colonies they've started raiding shipping lines and some of the neighboring colonies for equipment and supplies." Jamaican put a navigational chart on the screen, showing a series of transport hijackings and piracy reports along the shipping lines to and from the colony in question. "It's highly doubtful they'd attack our unit when we approach, but once we make contact with the enemy you are to engage and destroy them as quickly as possible. Recon teams have reported a single Musai class cruiser in the area, but its intentions have not been confirmed as hostile and we can't even tell if its weapons are operational. We know a number of Zeon vessels have been modified to serve as medical transports and space-liners, so we don't want to take any chances with this one." Jamaican turned the lights up a few levels and made sure everyone was listening. "Lieutenant Monsha, you are to exercise EXTREME restraint in this mission."

Bate wasn't at all surprised that Lieutenant Jamaican had made a special note in the briefing for Monsha. Obviously he was well aware of the man's less-than-stellar reputation by now. "Should we expect any surprises? Any new types of mobile suits or warships?"

"Not that we've seen, but the Federation generally ignores the activities of the space colonies so... I guess anything's possible."

Bate groaned at the vagueness of the answer. "We're going into an unfamiliar area against an unknown number of enemies with lord knows what kind of weapons. Could we at LEAST scout the colony first to get some better intel?"

Jamaican grinned, and in response to Bate's complaint gestured towards the back of the room. "Not to worry, Commander. We have a special guest for this operation." All of the pilots turned around in their chairs to see a short woman with short black hair leaning up against the wall with a bored, spaced out expression. "This is Lieutenant Gwen Larson, she'll corresponding with our unit for this operation." They couldn't place the uniform she was wearing, but it looked like a bizarre variation of a Zeon officer's uniform. From the look of her she could have been fresh out of the academy, but she had an air of superiority around her characteristic of a seasoned ace pilot. 

Monsha looked her over thoroughly, and couldn't help but be impressed. It would be an understatement just to call her a babe... "Well that's just perfect! I wouldn't mind following THIS woman around!"

"Not now Monsha..." Bate said quietly. He turned back to Jamaican. "Is the Lieutenant some kind of specialist?"

"Not exactly," Jamaican deferred to Lieutenant Larson, and on cue the woman stepped to the front of the room and replaced him in front of the large screen. "Fill us in on the details, if you would."

"Gladly." Larson tapped the consol and put a new graphic on the monitor. "Eleven months ago, two rival factions within the government of the Axis Zeon challenged the decision on who would replace the late Maharaja Khan as the new Regent. The challenge was peaceful at first, but radical members one of the groups started a firefight after a botched assassination attempt, resulting was a short but extremely bloody civil war. The larger of the two dissident groups scattered into interplanetary space and our intelligence has been unable to keep track of them. The other faction, a group known as the Marquis Fleet, retreated from Axis en masse and have since begun construction of an independent space colony known as Green Noa-II, orbiting Side 7. In exchange for peaceful coexistence with the Federation, the Marquis Fleet has offered full support to the both Titans and the Federal Forces in order to prepare for future hostilities with the Neo-Zeon army under the current Regent, Haman Khan."

Bate had seen something like this coming for a long time. The Titans always seemed to be close to their friends while sleeping with their enemies. "I take it you're here to represent the Marquis Fleet?"

"As a liaison, yes. If you have any questions or issues regarding our partnership, I can pass them on directly to Admiral Marquis."

Monsha's patience was already running out. "Okay, so besides walking scenery, we need you for what again?" 

"I'm a spacenoid." Larson said flatly. "You may be good pilots, Lieutenant, but you've got alot to learn about space combat."

Monsha rolled his eyes. "What's there to know? See space colony, see bad guys in colony, see space colony blow up. It aint rocket science or something..."

Larson snickered. "I'm glad you have so much confidence, Lieutenant, considering that without special training, you Earthnoids couldn't tell a space colony from the end of your dick. I'm here because your bosses don't want another embarrassing repeat of the Libot Incident."

Captain Bosque cleared his throat. "Lieutenant Larson, I'll remind you that as a spacenoid and a Zeon, you should consider yourself are under scrutiny by our investigators. Confidence is a good quality to have, but until you prove your loyalty you had better watch your mouth."

Larson rolled her eyes, but made no other gesture of dissent. "Yes sir, Captain sir. I'll watch that from now on."

Captain Bosque stood up again to complete this part of the briefing. "As for the rest of you, please be aware that this will be our first operation to aggressively suppress Zeon terrorists In order to demonstrate our ability to keep order in the colonies this mission has to be carried out as quickly as possible without difficulties and with as few civilian casualties as possible."

"Don't worry about a thing Captain! we can take care of them, no problem!" Monsha said, boisterous as ever.

Bosque frowned again, this time at Monsha. "General Haiman may be impressed with your abilities, but I have yet to see anything worth bragging about. Just do your job out there and do not disappoint me again, Lieutenant."

All of the pilots stood up and saluted, and one by one started to file out of the briefing room. Bate and Adel exited first, but hung around the door and waited for Monsha to come strolling out as usual. He had that same cocky, swaggering step Bate always associated with a man perpetually pleased with himself. _How sloppy. Sometimes I wonder..._ "So, old buddy, we're about two days from the colony now. Got any plans on how to pass the time?"

Monsha shrugged dumbly. "I checked every inch of this ship and I can't find any women as hot as Nina. On the other hand, I did see a couple of wet noses coming aboard from another unit that looked at least as naive as that dumbass Kieth. That might be entertaining for awhile..." He glanced back to the door as Lieutenant Larson stepped out and walked down the hallway in the other direction; this gave him an idea. "Hey Lieutenant Larson!"

Bate and Adel immediately recognized Monsha was about to make an ass of himself and followed closely to get a good view. "Can I help you with something Lieutenant?" Larson said, stopping the hand grip in the hall.

Monsha floated up next to her and planted his feet on the deck. "Hey, no hard feelings Gwen! Actually, I'd appreciate it if you'd teach me about this fighting in space thing. I think we should have a nice little discussion about this."

Larson stared at him for a few moments, then smiled warmly. "I see. How about dinner tonight?"

Bate and Adel were stunned, but Monsha seemed infinitely pleased with himself. "That sounds great! What're we having?"

With a flash of movement too fast for them to follow, Larson planted her feet, sprang up off the deck and snapped instep of her boot directly into his crotch. "Grapes." Larson said flatly.

Monsha keeled over automatically and started floating in the corridor, curled up in pain. Larson chuckled and pushed him back down the hall into the waiting arms of his comrades, then took the handrail again and continued on down the hall. Monsha groaned for a few moments and then looked up and watched her go, catching a perfect view of her flank as she retreated. "Man, she totally digs me!" He squeaked in agony.

Bate sighed distantly and glanced at Adel again. "Sometimes I really do wonder..."   
__

- 0950 hours (CST) -  
Naomi seemed to be dancing around in a giddy excitement at her own personal achievement with Brian and Ryo. Convincing them to sign on had been easier than she thought, and neither of them seemed to catch on to what she was really up to. Not that it mattered, neither of them really needed to know what she was up to in the first place, and once they were aboard it would be easy enough to get what she wanted without tipping off someone in the Titans chain of command. On the other hand, she had her own concerns. She hadn't noticed before that the little girl was blind as a bat, and she was more than a little nervous about her appearing out of thin air in the middle of a classified briefing; hopefully this wouldn't become a pattern for her. She didn't expect trouble from Brian or Ryo, but now she started to have concerns that maybe Alice herself would be the biggest problem of all.

Doubts and concerns aside, her mood couldn't have been more lively than it was today. She skipped along in the gravity block like a schoolgirl on parade, hummed a tune in the elevators, bounced back and forth in the corridors of the main ship like a demented grasshopper, finally shooting into the portside MS hangar wearing a massive smile from ear to ear. Lucy noticed it before anyone else and dropped down from her mobile suit to meet her on the deck. "How'd it go Lieutenant?"

Naomi caught her as she landed and spun her around like a top. "It was perfect! They didn't give it a second thought, just came right on board!"

"And the brass?"

"It's just another set of replacement pilots. They won't even read the names when they process the new assignments."

Lucy planted her feet again and looked at her with a worried expression. "What about the kid? You talk to her yet?"

Naomi chuckled. "As a matter of fact, I did."

"And?"

"Let's just say this is gonna be a really interesting tour." She bounded off the deck again towards her mobile suit, the RX-78N-2 resting up against the maintenance stall. Several mechanics were bolting down armor plating around engine assembly of the left leg, and when she thought back Naomi didn't remember any damages there. "Astonage, what's wrong with the leg?"

The ship's youngest mechanic and his three companions looked up from laser torches and grinned. "Nothing at all! Even the mighty Alex needs routine maintenance sometimes!"

"Let ME worry about Alex's maintenance for once! It is MY mobile suit, you know!" Naomi set down on the platform in front of the cockpit and switched on a computer terminal, going strait for reaction speed data. "Ugh... 98%?! What am I doing wrong?" She saved the file onto a disk and checked the reaction data against her readings from the sorties during the Delaz Rebellion. "Dammit, this is an all-time low! I even used more fuel than usual..."

Someone emerged from the cockpit of her mobile suit with a sharp, inquisitive expression. "Don't be too hard on yourself, Lieutenant. We all have our bad days."

Naomi's eyes noticed the Admiral's insignia on the shoulders before she saw the face between them. She snapped to attention automatically and found herself saluting Admiral Juan Dyson aboard her own ship. "Can I help you with something Admiral?"

"Not really, Lieutenant, just looking over the hardware." He stepped back on the lift platform and looked over the mobile suit from head to toe, clearly impressed with the craftsmanship of the humanoid weapon. "This really is one fine machine. In the hands of a skilled pilot like yourself, even on a bad day, I'm sure we'll get to see it's full potential."

"What does that mean, sir?" Naomi tried not to look at him directly, hoping perhaps he would go away after he answered the question.

"I came to give inform you of your new orders. Intelligence indicates the possibility of a new Zeon threat mobilizing somewhere in the colonies and this latest incident seems to confirm our suspicions. We're not sure of their strengths, but we're certain their capabilities already exceed that of the Delaz Fleet before the recent uprising, in fact they may even be aligned with some of the survivors of that very organization. The entire fleet's being mobilized for a counter offensive, but we need advanced elements like yourselves to try and draw them into the open where they can be dealt with quickly and decisively. As usual, you're free to use any means necessary to complete your mission."

That sounded official enough. Naomi relaxed just a bit. "You can count on us, Admiral."

"Of course I can. We've invested a huge amount of resources into the Tarawa and we're confident you won't make us regret it." Dyson gave away that same perverse smile again. Naomi started to sweat. "And I know you'll continue to make us proud. You've always had that fighting spirit, that's what I like about you, Naomi."

Her body tensed up again and her hands tightened into iron fists. The rest of the crew began to take note from all around the MS deck and began hoping and praying this would not end in an incident. "Is that all, sir?" She said evenly.

Dyson was quiet for a moment. He stood back a few steps and looked her over with the same satisfied look as the Gundam. "I really am looking forward to your performance in this campaign. You're quite a piece of work yourself, Baby Doll."

Naomi's entire body flinched. "I've told you before to stop calling me that."

Dyson smiled again, this time more mischievous. "Why so tense? You don't like me or something?"

"What makes you say that?"

Dyson winked at her and leaned back against the mobile suit, clearly not planning to leave her alone any time soon. "Think of all your successes. Everything you are, everything you've worked for until now would be just out of your reach if I hadn't been there to help you. I think I deserve alittle more respect, don't you?"

Naomi's blood was boiling in her veins. Even Dyson knew how much he was tempting fate by staying here, but she couldn't understand why he refused to disappear. "Respect, sir? You... sir, you tried to kill me on two separate occasions. I survived only by letting you think you'd succeeded. Everything I've done, I did in spite of you, not with your help."

Dyson stepped away from the mobile suit and walked around her, stopping just behind her so close she could feel him breathing down her neck. "Conner and Miranda are involved in some very dangerous work, and as you well know, Ashitaka's mental instability puts him at even greater risk. Remember, you are a powerful newtype. All of this negative energy you're putting out increases the chances of... heh, accidents."

All it would take was a steady breeze to set her off; her fingers were already stretching for the combat knife under her uniform. It took everything she had to keep her reflexes under control, and her voice came out like a strained whisper. "I can only promise you that if you so much as scratch one of them, I'll kill you."

Dyson came around in front of her and poised himself directly in her face. "I would LOVE to see you try."

Her fingers abandoned their stretch for the knife, instead going for her gun tucked into the holster on the other side. But before she could even draw her weapon she felt Eric's hand on her shoulder and saw Sergeant Amonte come out of nowhere to plant his feet on the platform behind him, overly eager to draw the Admiral's attention to some trivial detail. "Admiral, Chief Watson's been sending inquiries about the new mobile suits. We still don't have the specs for them and it'll be impossible to inventory the new parts without the specs."

"I'll get someone to help you later..." Dyson tried to brush him off, but Kelly grabbed him by the arm and effectively dragged him away from the mobile suit. "Actually, this is kind of an emergency. You see, with the new pilots coming on board and the possible stress of this new operation we need to get a head start on the maintenance cycle. One mistake at this point and we could loose the entire platoon..."

Dyson floated off unwittingly under Kelly's distraction while Lucy came up from the deck and set down in front of her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Naomi brushed her off and stepped into her cockpit, fighting back a flood of tears boiling in her eyes.

Lucy stuck her head inside slowly, hoping not to have it bitten off by a temperamental officer. "How does he manage to get under your skin like that? Sure, he's an asshole, so are all the other Earthnoid big shots..."

"Long story."

"You wanna talk about it?" Naomi answered her with a tap on her control consol and the hatch started to close. Lucy just manage to pull her head out before the hatch slammed shut and decapitated her. "I guess not." She stood for a moment and logged this one back into her memory. Everyone on the ship knew of Naomi's burning hatred for the Admiral by now, and they also knew the feeling seemed to be mutual. Just what it was that could have started this rivalry was anyone's guess, but if it really was that person, Lucy wasn't about to pry into someone else's personal life. "It's probably none of my business anyway..."

"Why? She's your friend isn't she?" Lucy spun around suddenly to find herself face to face with a twelve-year-old girl in a black shirt and slacks. It caught her so off guard her mind went blank for a moment, and the girl took that as a cue to speak again. "Admiral Dyson only picks on people because they're isolated and vulnerable. I don't think you can find a more sadistic weirdo anywhere in the universe."

Lucy stared at her for another moment before she thought to say anything. "How long have you bee standing there?"

"I don't know, I forgot my stop-watch."

Lucy looked around briefly to see if anyone else was watching, but somehow no one seemed to even notice she was here. "Who let you in here? Don't you know this area's off limits to civilians?"

"Astonage let me in. Ask him, he'll tell you."

Lucy leaned over the railing and looked down the side of the mobile suit where Kelly and three mechanics were pestering the Admiral with a small stack of paperwork. "Astonage, what's this kid doing here?"

Astonage looked up from the group with a confused expression. "Kid? What kid?"

"This little girl right he...?" When she turned around again, Alice was gone, leaving only a quiet hole in the air where she had just been standing. Lucy looked around the hangar in all directions, but aside from the usual mechanics the bay was empty. She thought it over for a moment before she remembered what Naomi had said before and made the mental connection. "Interesting tour... No shit!"


	4. Chapter 3: Treasure Hunt

_The day the masses of men learn to think for themselves is the day anarchy reigns and chaos prevails. There are a few outstanding leaders in the world, but the majority of people exist to be controlled._   
- Gihren Zabi 

* * *

** Chapter 3: Treasure Hunt**

  
_- February 5, UC 0083 -  
- 0750 hours (CST) -  
_ The Titans ships were all approaching the colony in a standard formation, outwardly passive and disinterested in the affairs of the colony just like Federation ships pretty much always were. No one really took the Titans seriously these days, they were just Feddies with black shirts and black mobile suits. Monsha aimed to change that, as the hatch to the forward hangar opened up he could just see a row of Zakus all lined up for him to kill. "This is Unit Two to Home Run. Ready to kick some ass! Where's that Musai you said would be in the area?!"

A Hizack was maneuvering around in space a few hundred meters in front of the Alexandria, this one belonging to Lieutenant Larson. She didn't seem in any particular rush to move out of the way of the catapult, not that Monsha would have waited for her to move anyway. "This is Larson to all units. I've identified the Musai as the cruiser Scarface, formerly assigned to the Zeon Mobile Assault Corp's Special Forces unit. The ship is now registered to a Captain Mitsuo Black, a bail bondsman from Side 2."

Monsha powered up his thrusters and scanned the area. "What the hell? He's a bounty hunter?"

"Captain Black is in charge of a private investigating firm. They salvaged the cruiser after the war and restored it out of their own pockets. I used to work with him to hunt down Zabi remnants before the Federation formed YOUR unit. And we were damn good at it too."

Bate snickered to himself. "Well that explains Larson."

"And it also explains what that Musai's up to." Adel added gently. The catapult fired right then and Bate's GM Quell fired into space, followed by Monsha and Adel's suits as they drifted towards the colony.

Monsha did a quick systems check and frowned at the data he was getting. "Bate, these new suits aren't all they're cracked up to be. The old GM Customs were alot faster in space..."

"These units fight best inside of colonies, which is where those Zabis are hiding out." Bate aligned his mobile suit towards the colony and started towards the bay block. "I don't want to hear you bitching all day Monsha, just do your job already!"

"Okay, right..." Monsha couldn't help but notice that the colony seemed to get bigger the closer they got to it. It seemed to him they should have been close enough to touch down on it, but every second that passed the thing just kept getting bigger. "Hey Chap, what's our range?"

"20 Kilometers Lieutenant."

"20 klicks?! How big IS that thing?!"

Over the radio, Bate and Adel could hear Larson laughing at him. "Stupid Earthnoids, you just never learn... Oh, don't look now but the Scarface is launching mobile suits into the colony."

Monsha looked into the distance where three black mobile suits were heading towards the colony; two Rickdoms and what looked like a Kaempher. "What are those guys up to?"

"They want the bounty, idiot." Larson said sharply. "You're not the only ones who watch the colonial police reports. Black's gang wants to round up those Zeek holdouts and deliver them to the Republic of Zeon for war crime trials. That's how they finance their business, you know."

A low, grim voice crackled over the radio that made everyone else's skin crawl. "No matter what their purpose, spacenoids should not be allowed to move about freely with weapons. Arrest anyone who interferes with this operation, is that clear Lieutenant Bate?"

Bate fought back a shiver, then responded loud and clear. "Understood Colonel, will comply." Bate couldn't shake the feeling that he'd heard Jamitov's voice somewhere before... then he remembered. His worst nightmares. "C'mon gang, you heard the man. Bate Team, move into the colony and secure the area. Larson Team, secure the bay block and cover the colony exterior. Everyone else standby and await further orders."

Bate set his mobile suit down on the bulkhead next to the bay block. Adel set down as well, but Monsha came in at a bad angle and almost lost his footing on the metal. "Damn, this thing's always spinning!"

"Knock it off Monsha. Get into the colony and keep a low profile. We're here to round them up, not start a mobile suit battle."

"Roger..."

The three GM Quells and a few older GMs moved into the bay block and started with the airlock controls. Larson looked again at the three Scarface mobile suits closing in and changed to Captain Black's usual frequency. "Scarface, this is Rugrat, gimme a dollar here."

A voice on the radio crackled back. "Hey Gwen, is that you? Hot damn, you sound sexier than ever!"

Lieutenant Larson smiled in her cockpit. He sounded just as stupid and ignorant as the last time she saw him. "Stow it Galen. Who's out there with you?"

"Roberto and Appoli. You have to ask?"

"Of course not. You're after that bounty right?"

"That's right. And get this, one of them's a genuine member of the Zabi line. Apparently she's Duke Degwin's second-cousin's niece."

Larson raised a brow. Back in the old days she would have passed out from the shock, then brought out her special bag of tricks with the hope of collecting her cut from the bounty. But with the Titans calling the shots now, anyone who didn't have an Earth-stamped birth certificate wouldn't even get credit for the assist. "Guys I hate to do this to you, but the Titans want to bag this one themselves, and they don't want outside interference."

Roberto broke into the channel with his usual devilish laughter. "Don't forget Gwen, we've dealt with the Feds before. As long as we follow the rules, they can't even touch us. Besides, it's not a matter of getting in anyone's way, it's a matter of who gets there first." Galen's Kaempher disappeared behind the colony, Appoli and Roberto following along right behind him in Rickdoms. "Besides, you guys are acting on an anonymous tip. Spacenoids only give non-bullshit tips other spacenoids."

"Roberto, that cocky attitude's gonna get you killed some day..." Gwen said this even knowing that he was right. It was part of the reason she had held back so much from the Titans already. "So Galen, what do you know about this girl?"

An image appeared on Gwen's monitor of a dazed looking teenager with short blonde hair that seemed to have never seen a comb. "Her name is Ulyana Mishkya-Zabi. She's about 17 years old, and she's been in hiding since the war ended. Alot of Zabi hunters are trying to kill her for her last name, but Side 3 just wants their money back and they can't legally get it while she's out of the country, so..."

"Of course. They all stand trial for two minutes, Side 3 seizes their assets and lets them all go back into hiding."

"That's about the size of it. Keep an eye on your little cubs there Gwen, space colonies aren't huge fans of military police forces."

"No shit Galen. Don't do anything stupid now..."

"Asking you to marry me was stupid. I'd rather think of this as 'whimsical.'"

"I'm sorry, but I can't help being a cold-hearted bitch. It's how I was brought up." Gwen's squad moved into the bay block to cover the exit in case any of them tried to escape. Gwen set her own suit down on the side of the colony and peaked inside to witness the festivities inside the colony. "Three groups of idiots locked in an enclosed space colony, all heavily armed and surrounded by civilians, and somebody hires ME to keep them out of trouble. Will wonders never cease..."   


_- 0920 hours (CST) -  
_ It was Eric's turn again. The game had gotten tiresome almost 9 hours ago, but until the new mobile suits arrived from Abau-Aqu and the new pilots managed to transfer the rest of their belongings from the Merrimac, there was little else they could do now. Naomi had beaten Lucy in six consecutive chess games, but Mike and Eric had each beaten her four times in staring contests and thumb wars. The great rock-paper-scissors tournament ended with Captain Shiden as the undisputed champion of the ship, and now after four days of waiting they were down to their last resort. "Hit me." Eric said, staring at his cards.

Mike slapped an ace on the deck. "Fourteen."

"Hit me." Mike slapped down a two. "Hit me." A three. "Uhhh... Hit me." A nine. "Hit me." An eight. "Hit me." Another Ace. "Hit me." A king. "Hit me..."

Naomi looked up from her seat, lingering on the edge of sleep. "How many is that?"

Mike counted up the cards. "Fifty-seven... how may are we supposed to have again?"

Naomi sighed. "This is boring."

Eric slumped over the table. "You're just mad cause we took all your money. You know, for a homless girl you really do suck at cards."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Mike shrugged. "It means that for a homeless girl..."

"I heard what he said, Mike. What's that supposed to mean anyway? Just because I didn't grow up in a big fancy space colony I'm supposed to be some kind of con-artist?"

Eric was too bored to try and defend himself now. "Naomi, you have a third-grade education. If you didn't play cards, what DID you do with your spare time?"

Naomi rolled her eyes at the comment. "Keep it up, Eric, I'll give you a demonstration."

Mike could feel his entire body gaining weight by the minute. Any second now and Eric would say or do something and cause her to loose her temper again, but on a day like today he was much too bored to try and break it up. "Knock it off, you too. Let's go back to that other game we were playing with Lucy."

Naomi straitened up a bit and started shuffling the cards. "Okay, fine. Who's turn was it?"

"Uhhh..." Mike looked at Naomi, then at Eric then, thought it over a bit. "Eric's a think."

"Okay... Naomi…" Eric thought for a moment and then an idea came to him. "Truth or dare.""

"Truth.""

"What is your real hair color?"

Naomi blinked. "How do you know my hair isn't red?"

"You're not white enough."

"Huh?"

Mike actually agreed with him for a change. "He's got a point, Lieutenant. And your nose is the wrong shape."

Naomi tapped her nose self consciously, then made up her mind. "Dare."

"I dare you to take off your shirt."

Naomi sighed and dropped her head on the table. "You see, that's why we stopped playing this game in the first place! With you its either take off your shirt, take off your pants, take off your boxers... C'mon, think of something original already!"

Eric thought for a moment, then shrugged in defeat. "I dare you to... take off your watch."

Naomi sighed. "Oh my god, you are such an idiot!"

"Hey, it's the best I can do!"

"Yeah, sure." Naomi thought of one of her own, and in a split second she put it to use. "Mike, Truth or dare."

"Dare."

"I dare you to punch Eric in the face." Mike didn't even hesitate. The blow caught Eric completely off guard and he flipped backwards out of his chair and rolled out on the ground in a half-conscious stupor. "Nice hit."

"Thanks."

The door to the mess hall slid open and two young officers stepped inside. Mike didn't recognize either of them at a glance, but it only took him a second to figure it out. "Are those the new guys?"

Naomi glanced across the room at the door, then turned back and nodded. "Yup."

"Ball pilots, huh?"

"Yup."

He leaned forward a bit and whispered, "Which one's Anderson?"

"The tall one. Izumi's the other one."

"He's not related to Ryo Izumi, is he?"

Naomi raised a brow. "You know him?"

"I saw him on TV a few years ago. He was the only survivor from Nobel Colony."

"Nobel Colony?" Naomi looked at them again, this time with an expression of amazement. "That was HIM?"

"They say he killed two Zakus with a construction pod trying to defend the bay block. The Zeeks were gonna drop the colony with him it, but somehow he managed to escape during the battle..."

Naomi already knew the story, though after all this time the name and the face had long since faded into obscurity in her memory. This was something she had never expected, not back then and especially not now. In any case, it gave put her at an advantage in terms of judging his character. This was a man whose sentiments and motives would be easy to understand. "That could be useful when the time comes. But that Anderson guy..."

"Transfer them into my team, I'll keep an eye on him." Mike looked them over for a few more moments and then called them over to the table. "Hey newbees, pilot's table over here!"

Brian and Ryo followed his voice and joined them at the table after a moment's hesitation and came to sit down at the table. Brian relaxed in his chair a bit, but Ryo seemed bent on sizing things up before he lets his guard down. "Been waiting long?" He said, eyeing the abandoned deck of cards.

"Not really, no." Naomi scooped up all of her cards, shuffled them and tucked them back into her pocket. "Welcome aboard, you two. This is Lieutenant Mike Jenson, pilot of Gundam 804. And that..." she pointed at the stupefied man lying on his back on a tipped-over chair. "...is our resident blowhard, Lieutenant Eric Swanson, Gundam 803. Say hello, Eric."

"Hello Eric." He said distantly.

Ryo and Brian looked down and him curiously but with a certain disinterest. "Happy to know ya."

"Likewise." Mike glanced at Naomi for some kind of explanation; she had none. Sooner or later he, decided, he would get around to figuring these two out. "So... Have you had a chance to look around?"

"We have." Brian said casually.

"And?"

"Let's just say we're satisfied."

Naomi could tell he was being evasive. She wasn't sure what he was trying to keep quiet, but she could completely understand his reasons. "I would have thought you'd be more impressed than that. This is your first time on a ship with a gravity block, isn't it?"

"Well yeah, but it's not quite what I excepted..."

"Brian, you gotta see this!" Kelly came running into the room dragging Alice behind him in something of a panic. They stopped a few feet short of the table, boiling over with excitement. "Brian, ALL of the officer's quarters have showers!"

Ryo's knee jerked and the entire table lurched from impact. For just an instant, Naomi noticed something in his eyes like shock and awe, and she could tell he was doing his best not to show it. "That's good news. At least we'll have that option if it ever becomes useful..."

"Ours has a Jacuzzi!" Alice jumped in excitedly.

Brian's face went completely blank. "A-A real one?"

"Yeah... well I think it's real. I could fit into it lying down though!"

"Hot damn! We're on...!" Brian remembered himself after a moment and slipped back into his somewhat bored persona. "That'll do nicely. Yeah, I think we can learn to work with that."

Alice didn't seem to be catching on, but she could tell when he was up to something and decided not to press the issue. Naomi, on the other hand, was already onto him. "Lieutenant Anderson, this is not a Titans ship. You can relax now."

"Who said we weren't relaxed? I just don't find the Tarawa especially glam..." Ryo froze with his mouth hanging open; at that moment he felt the air around him turn to liquid and a sudden rush of urgency. The rest of the world faded into the background to what she was sensing now and some strange pressure started building up against the sides of his head. He knew this feeling perfectly well, and he knew exactly what it meant to feel it in a place like this. _ I know this feeling... it's just like..._

Without warning ship's scramble horn started screaming through the corridors of the ship, stirring an immediate response from the crew and the pilots. Naomi grabbed Eric by the collar and pulled him to his feet, Ryo and Brian burst up from the table and sprinted out of the doorways of the mess hall to get to their pilot suits followed a split second later by Mike. Alice were the only ones who didn't move right away, but after a few seconds when the room had cleared and the chaos died away, Kelly took her by the hand and lead her as quickly as he could towards the door. "C'mon kid, let's get you into a normal suit."

Brian dashed first into the normal suit lockers and grabbed his pilot suit, and Ryo joined him after a moment with equal urgency. "Did you feel that just now?" He asked as he checked the last of his seals.

Ryo nodded and reached for his helmet. "Sure felt like him, didn't it?"

"Dieter Cunningham. No doubt about it."

Ryo fished through his pocket and made sure it was still there: the gold bullet with Dieter's Name etched into the hollow point was still safely nestled in that pouch of fabric. "We'll get him this time. Let's go!" 

  
_- 0920 hours (CST) -  
_ Bunch 3 looked like a war zone from all the chaos that had just taken place. Four Zaku-I mobile suits lay shattered in the streets near the industrial blocks and a dozen warehouses and factories were either partially or totally demolished by the battle. Half of the colony was without power, the other half was without water, and every building near where the fighting had started had all of its windows completely blown out.

Monsha's GM Quell was kneeling in front of the entrance to the warehouse next to a dozen black armored vehicles with the Titans symbol painted on the sides. The mobile suit pilots and soldiers inside searched through everything they found there; mattresses, blankets, old electric stoves, a refrigerator, an ice machine, piles of old books, some unused rifles and pistols and heaps of old clothes probably donated by the Salvation Army. Monsha stood at the middle of it all and took in the entire scene, trying and failing to make up a judgment about this situation. "They've definitely been here a while. Looks like a family of gypsies or something."

Lieutenant Bate climbed down a latter from the catwalk and joined Monsha in the middle of the room. "We checked every corner of the building, so far nothing. There's no sign of them anywhere."

Monsha looked around again, this time noticing some of the finer details. "Think somebody tipped em off?"

"Adel doesn't think so. They left everything behind, didn't even take their weapons. There's a few vehicles out back, some false documents and whatnot..."

"So they just up and disappeared?" Bate nodded, and Monsha spat on the ground. "Goddamn spacenoids, I shoulda known."

"We're gonna send a platoon out for door-to-door searches of the area and Alexandrian's blockading the port. Whoever's protecting these people won't get very far."

Monsha walked over towards one pile of books and bent over to look through a few of them. "Look at all this. Fredereich Neitzsche, Carl Sagan, T.H. Lawrence, Aristotle, Zeon Daikun... Bate, I'm having flashbacks to highschool!"

Bate looked at him with a confused expression. "You feel horny and unpopular?"

Monsha growled at him and picked up one of the books. "It's like all they do is eat, sleep, and read philosophy."

Bate snatched the book out of Monsha's hand and opened it to the first page. The title there didn't match the one on the cover, "This looks like trouble... 'The Spacenoid Evolution by Zeon Zum Daikun...'"

Galen turned the volume up on the headset and zoomed the camera in just a bit. It still amazed him that the Titans, even turning the entire building upside down and inside out looking for their suspects had totally failed to notice the array of simple monitoring devices they'd planted there only nineteen minutes ago. He could watch the entire show from the cockpit of his Kaempher and probably go unnoticed for years the way the Titans were carrying about, but he knew that once he was sure they were in the clear they'd be leaving this area with their newest cash cow. "Galen to Scarface, these guys are complete idiots. Can I go home now?"

He could clearly make out Appoli and Roberto trying not to laugh in the background, but Captain Black sounded as calm and focused as ever. "They pick up the trail?"

"Do they ever?"

"No, but this is our first time dealing with the Titans. You never know..." Captain Black listened in on the radio feed from the bug for a few moments more and suddenly second-guessed himself. From what he was hearing the Titans seemed even more inept than the regular investigators, which came as no surprise to him. He wouldn't have expected much else from Earthnoids. "Yeah, you might as well pack it in."

Galen cheered on the inside and turned his mobile suit around in the bay block for the flight back to the ship. "I'm on the way back. Keep the fridge warm for me."

"Copy that." Captain Black clicked off his radio line and glanced off to the corner of the room at their catch, the teenage niece of the Zabi family and the eight-year-old kid they found with her. "You know how much you're actually worth?"

"How much?" She said boredly.

"Your bounty alone is half a million bucks, plus a hundred grand for bringing you in unharmed, and a hundred more for your accomplices. It's less than we expected, but it pays the bills, right?"

"Seven hundred grand will do more than just pay the bills. What'll you do with the rest of it?"

Appoli thought it over for a few moments. "She'd got a good point, but then that's why we do this kind of work. We literally do have more money than we know what to do with."

The girl shook her head in disgust, and Captain Black walked over and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it Ulyana, they just want a court appearance for a couple of days. We'll give you a ride back as soon as it's all over."

She understood this fact, but it didn't make her feel any better about it. "It still sucks. We're not rebels or anything, I'm not even Zabi by blood!"

"A rose by any other name would suck just as much."

"Hmph."

Galen's mobile suit was just approaching the ship by now and the Musai's engines were now powering up. Captain Black would have ordered the ship to get underway the instant his feet touched the hull if not for the sudden screaming of the communications channel in the back of the room. With a bridge manned by a skeleton crew, Captain Black moved over to the consol and answered the call himself. The signal came in on an EMA frequency, which was a clear indication of just who the signal was from in the first place. "Talk to me, Miles."

"Mitsuo, what's your present location? You're not close to Bunch 3 are you?"

"So what if we are?"

Captain Longhorn's face sagged in a wave of crushing anxiety. "I was afraid of that."

"Don't worry, Miles, we got the heads. We can hit Side 3 orbit in about two days, unless you want to swing by a pick em up..."

Captain Longhorn looked up into the monitor with a severe expression Captain Black had never seen on any man, least of all someone as cool-headed as him. "Mitsuo, I'm approaching Side 2 as we speak. I think you should know, General Corini has informed the ministry that if Ulyana Zabi is allowed to escape into Zeon territory, it will constitute an act of war and the Titans will act accordingly."

Captain Black did a double take at the monitor. "You're shittin me!"

"I shit you not, Mitsuo. Those were his exact words."

Everyone on the bridge felt a churning in their stomachs at the situation, except Ulyana, who simply fell to her knees close to tears. "Miles, that's a pretty clear violation of international laws. Unless she's wanted for war crimes, which is impossible..."

"These guys are nothing like the regular forces. Jamitov flat out told the ministry that any colony harboring members of the Zabi Family will be annexed by military action. You see how this works yet?"

"Damn Titans make up their own rules..." Captain Black groaned in annoyance, partly at the situation, and partly in annoyance that anyone could get away with something so blatantly illegal without having a price on their heads. "Meanwhile the ministry doesn't so much as file a complaint?"

"Of course they will. And the Federal Government is just overflowing with interest for anything the spacenoids care about."

Again, everyone on the bridge reacted with the same disgusted groans, though again Ulyana's reaction differed by her bursting into tears. "No bounty, huh?"

"Not a penny. Sorry about all this, but you know how it is."

"Yup. Take care Miles, I'll be in touch." Captain Black closed the emergency channel and opened a new line directly to the Alexandria and its cruiser group. "This is the cruiser Scarface to Titans warship on my port bow, open communications, I think we might have found what you're after."

  
_- 0922 hours (CST) -  
_ "Helm, turn thirteen degrees left, ten degrees negative pitch! Give me combat speed immediately!"

The ship started to turn towards the battle area even as the forward hatch opened up on the mobile suit hangar. Naomi and Lucy were the first to get to their mobile suits, with Eric lingering just behind them with the stats still spinning around his head. Naomi literally leapt into her cockpit and powered up the machine without even looking. "Gundam 801, standing by."

The radar officer called off the data both on radio and to anyone on the bridge within earshot. "Enemy mobile suits bearing 0-1-0 minus 7. The supply ship Sindri is taking fire from at least three enemies."

Naomi reached for the equipment rack next to her mobile suit and picked up a beam rifle and two spare packs. "801, standing by."

"802, standing by." Lucy echoed from the station behind her.

"803, standing by." Eric said from the opposite hangar.

Both Gundams stepped off their maintenance stalls and planted their feet on the catapult sleds set into the deck. The locks clamped down on the bottom of their feet and both slid sideways from the stalls to the main catapult line. She waited for the ship to stop turning before she actually powered up her thrusters and charged up the catapult. The battle in space was so close she could already see the flashing of explosions up ahead. "Hurry up, people! That transports carrying the new mobile suits! Gundam G4 launching!" She pushed the foot pedals and slammed the throttles forward. Her mobile suit roared down the catapult and shot into space already under power.

Ryo and Brian ran side-by-side down the corridor to the ship's rear landing bay. It was usually reserved for shuttles and support vehicles, but today it was home for their weapons of choice, the RB-79 battle pods they had come aboard with from the Merrimac. Ryo sprang off the deck like a grasshopper and swung himself into the cockpit by the side of the hatch, Brian took his time and climbed into it patiently. "Contact code 11."

"Code 11, roger." Ryo powered up his machine after only a moment and started moving out of the bay. Both pods rose up over the hull of the ship and then rocketed towards the fighting in the distance as fast as their verniers could take them. "It's always code 11..."

Naomi's computer picked up movement ahead, then selected targets and magnified each of them on her screen. Three GMs from the cruiser group were already engaging the enemy with little success. The Columbus transport had already lost two of its engines and was drifting helplessly as the battle raged around it. She counted the enemy mobile suits and picked out the nearest one, a Zaku with a rakaten bazooka. "Alright..." She lead with a single burst from her beam rifle, not intending to hit the enemy as much as get his attention. The mobile suit almost surprised her with its quick response, whirling around and shooting two shells right back at her. But the shot wasn't aimed and didn't come close enough to hitting her. She had an angle on him now, and firing two more shots she forced him to turn his back to her and try to evade.

Lucy and Eric plunged into the battle the same way, with Mike's Gundam only a few seconds from the combat zone. A along energy blast from Chase's GM Sniper in the distance sliced the legs off one of the attacking mobile suits from the transport, and by now all of them were heavily engaged with the Gundams. "GM unit, get that transport ship clear! We'll buy you some time!" Naomi pushed her throttles again and circled around in front of the Zaku as it flew, then with a sweep of her beam saber sliced the mobile suit in half before the pilot could even react.

Chase scanned the battle zone with his sniper scope and took a count. "Lieutenant, I count maybe nine mobile suits minus the one you just dropped. Two of them look like Gelgoogs."

"Gelgoogs? Where...?" She sensed an attack coming behind her rolled backwards just as the suit fired, letting the beams pass just over her torso without taking a hit. "I see him..." She rolled over to face him and started to shoot back, but the Gelgoog passed her like a blur before she even pulled the trigger. It started to come around to attack again, but another blast from Chase's rifle forced it to break off for now. "Chase, what're you doing with your life? You think maybe you could hit something?"

"They're reacting alot faster than normal. These aint the regular troops... "

The second of the two Gelgoogs stayed mostly out of the fight for the time being and sized up its competition. The pilot couldn't help but chalk this one up to pure dumb luck. _ Damn Gundams. Just fighting one of those things is a pain in the ass, but FOUR?_ The transport ship started moving again, partly crawling in secondary thrusters and partly being towed by the Feddy mobile suits. "Assault team, get a move on! We have to capture that ship before reinforcements arrive...!"

Captain Santana's Gelgoog took a break from its own situation for a brief spot check. "Dieter, on your six!"

He spun around in space to find two RB-79s bearing down on him with cannons aimed directly at him. He actually did a double take before he realized that they really did intend to attack him. "Balls? You're kidding me!" He was almost playful as he locked his beam rifle onto the closer one, but the blast that should have blown it to bits missed its armor by half a meter when the machine dodged. He fired another shot without a second thought. And another. And another. Still they sidestepped him with the smallest movements and still the Balls kept moving towards him. They didn't bother to shoot back until they were close enough, and when Dieter tried to dodge he ended up moving right into the path of their fire. His armor deflected two direct hits, but the third from the lead Ball split open the armor around his shoulder and locked his controls for just a few moments. "Not to a damn Ball...!" He bit his tongue as he spun around and tried to take aim again, but the two pods split up on either side of him and started circling.

One of them fired its tow cable across his face, the other caught it on the other side and snapped the cable like a whip; the cable struck the beam rifle in the stock and flipped it out of his hands. "What the... wait a second, I know this!" This was trick he'd seen once before, a maneuver that had claimed one too many comrades in the past. He took a moment to check the markings on the pods, but even that wasn't necessary. Both of these pilots know how to get the most out of those useless machines and moved just like hr knew they should. "What do I have to do to be rid of you assholes?!"

Brian kept trying to setup a shot, but Dieter's suit was more maneuverable than he expected. Just judging the angle would be hard from here, he had to get closer. "You could let us kill you, that might work."

"Like hell!" Dieter fired off a burst from both of his forearm machine guns, but just stopping for one moment was all it took for Ryo to sink a round into his leg and send him spinning again.

"Well you asked! That's about your only chance right now!"

Dieter stabilized again and tried to fire another shot, but a shell from Ryo's cannon destroyed his arm and sent him retreating away from them again. "So you two joined the Titans, huh? Should have figured you'd jump in with that kind of crowd." He hissed bitterly.

"In a pig's eye! We're fighting to hunt down scumbags like YOU!"

Dieter drew his double beam saber, but he knew no matter what kind of speed his suit had he still wouldn't be able to get close enough before they could sink a round strait into his cockpit. Instead he fired a small flare from the launcher in his left hand to signal the other mobile suits of his attack wave. "What do you want from me anyway? I was just following orders...!"

Ryo and Brian both fired a double-punch from their cannons, chewing up entire sections of his arm shield and forcing him to discard it. "You were part of a unit that killed millions of people! You personally have fired gas cylinders into four different colonies!" Ryo fired two more shots and Dieter barely managed to contort his machine around them to avoid being hit. "You're an enemy to all spacenoids and you have to be destroyed!"

"I did what I thought was right!" Three Zakus from the rear support unit came into the battle zone and started closing in. Dieter started in that direction, even as fire from the two pods intensified. "If you were in my position you would have done the same thing!"

"The hell I would! We don't slaughter women and children, Dieter!" Brian's thrusters were running at max and couldn't keep up with the Gelgoog much longer. He tried to aim one more shot, but at the last moment sensed pressure from enemies and boosted to his left out of the path of a bazooka round. Ryo locked into the Zaku at the same time he did, and predicting the pilot they both aimed directly above it. When the cannons fired, the Zaku boosted upwards, both shells exploding under the cockpit hatch. "That one's mine!" Brian shouted.

"I'll give you half..." The other two Zakus bore in with machineguns to lay down cover fire for the Gelgoog, and once again both pods locked on at the same time and again sank a round into the same spot of the Zaku's torso. "... and there's the other half."

"The Gelgoog... SHIT!" Brian spun around and took a few desperate shots at Dieter's suit, but the Gelgoog was already speeding away from them under full thrust, much too fast for them to follow. One shell scored a lucky hit on his armor but at too shallow an angle to do make more than a sizeable dent. "That chicken shit, he's running away! He AWALYS runs away!"

"I know, I know..." The remaining Zaku discarded its rifle and charged in with a heat hawk, and both of the pods turned and aimed again. But before either of them could fire, a blast of mega particles struck down from above, burned through the top of its head and body and out again through the bottom of one leg. The suit lingered for only a moment before its reactor exploded, knocking the two pods around like a pair of golf balls and rattled the pilots around in their cockpits. "DAMN! Who the hell...?!"

The Alex Gundam above them changed packs on the beam rifle and scanned around the sky for another target. "The enemy suits are retreating. Fall back to protect the transport until the Tarawa can make the..."

"What's the big idea?! You tryin to get us both killed?!"

Naomi stopped for a moment, wondering if she had missed something. "You have a problem, Izumi?"

"Problem?! If you were gonna blow it's reactor could you at least have the courtesy and warn me?!"

"Huh?"

"These pods don't have an AMBAC system! When you blow the reactor at this range we can't roll with the impact like a mobile suit!"

Naomi could sense mounting pressure from an enemy behind her, but she was more perplexed by this than she was worried about the enemy suit. "How can you fight battles if you worry about a thing like that?" The Rickdom behind her charged in with its heat saber drawn. Twenty meters from her back a pencil-beam swept out from the distance, slicing the suit neatly in half down the middle. "Good shot Chase... Look, Lieutenant, if you've got a problem we can discuss this later. Right now I want the two of you to get over to that transport and help secure the cargo. We'll offload your new mobile suits a little bit later."

Ryo's teeth were grinding down into sand by now and Brian started to worry about friendly fire. Still, he turned his machine towards the transport ship and muttered angrily under his breath, "Fix the engine Ryo, secure the cargo Ryo, paint the hull Ryo, unclog the garbage chute Ryo, recover that lifepod Ryo... Dammit Brian, Gundam pilots don't do this kind of work!"


	5. Chapter 4: Depravity

_To paraphrase James Thurber: Little Red Riding Hood approached the bed no nearer than thirty feet when she pulled out a pistol and shot the wolf dead; for even in a cap and nightgown a wolf looks less like your grandmother than Aguile Delaz looks like the Easter Bunny. Little girls are not so easy to fool nowadays as they used to be._  
- Paptimus Scirrocco

* * *

** Chapter 4: Depravity**

_- February 5, UC 0084 -  
- 0960 hours, CST -_  
Naomi stashed her pilot's suit in the first locker and stretched her back from side to side. As tired as she looked and felt now, there as the overwhelming satisfaction that today's fight had been an improvement over her performance in her last battle, with reaction speed peaking at 130% of a standard pilot and her hit ratio just short of 1:3. She reveled in herself today.

Lieutenant Matsui came into the locker room and slapped Naomi on the back as she came in. "Changing flight assignments, are we?"

"You and Eric are moving to First Squad, and I'm putting the newbees in second with Mike and Chase..."

The door burst open again and this time Lieutenant Izumi burst in, slammed his helmet against the locker leaving a sizeable dent in the door. He surged up to Lieutenant Wilson and grabbed her by the collar of her uniform, "What's your problem anyway?! Don't you know anything about combat?!"

Naomi peeled his hands away from her collar and counted to three. She was making a phenomenal effort to control her temper today, not wanting to start off her new pilot's first day with a savage beating. "You have to destroy your targets, Lieutenant. I don't see the conflict here..."

"I'm not a damn rookie, I know that! But you don't really expect me to believe...!"

Brian came up and held his hand up between them to interrupt. He could see her confusion on this matter, and with the mounting tension in the room he wanted to avoid dragging this out in view of the other pilots. "Lieutenant, your Gundam was armed with a beam rifle at the time, which increases the chances of a reactor detonation."

"So what?"

"You should have warned us before you destroyed that mobile suit. You forgot to do that and you put us both at risk."

Eric threw his arms up to the sky and Mike hung his head, suddenly tired of the conversation. "Anderson, we're not like the regular forces. We're not really concerned with radio discipline."

Brian could already tell that much, but it was inconsequential to the conversation. "That's not what I mean. Ryo and I each have nine kills against enemy mobile suits..."

"Ten." Ryo corrected. "Not counting today's haul."

"...And all of them were soft kills, no reactor detonations. As Ball pilots, we usually to fight at close range or close to space colonies or ships where we really can't afford to risk a reactor detonation so we have to aim to either disable them or knock out the cockpits. You understand, right? It's just a safety issue."

Though not actually part of the conversation, Lucy gave a whistle of amazement from her cockpit. "Ten kills in a Ball?"

Mike raised his head again, his interest rejoining the conversation. "How exactly did you pull that off?"

"Who cares? Kill scores aren't everything." Eric grumbled, the sting of a no-kill mission still twisting in his guts.

"Well..." Naomi was impressed, but right now it was in her best interest not to say anything about it. "Izumi, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but that doesn't make any difference now, does it?"

"What do you mean?"

Brian patted Ryo on the shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Gundams."

"Oh, right."

That being apparently settled, Naomi changed the subject. "Have you two been briefed on the new operation yet?"

Ryo answered back immediately. "Lieutenant Matsui filled us in when we came aboard. We just need to check out the new machines."

"Good, but there's been a slight change of plans. I'll give all of you the details at the next briefing, but basically the Tarawa's been ordered back to Earth."

All of them blinked and suddenly Alice was standing in the midst of them with her face was full of anxiety. "A-Are we really going to Earth? What for?"

Lucy did a double take, Chase closed his eyes and opened them again, Mike and Eric both looked around nervously, wondering and doubting she had been there all along, and Naomi almost jumped out of her skin. "Where the hell did YOU come from?!"

"Ummm..." She thought for a moment and tried to summarize. "I'm not sure. Something to do with a sperm cell and an egg and..."

"No, no I mean..." Naomi took a few breaths and pushed herself past it. "Whatever... what are you so worried about anyway?"

"Nothing, I just don't see any good reason to go to Earth. Ever."

"Why not?"

"The Zeon forces are in space, and that's where the Titans are fighting them. So shouldn't we stay in space? Wouldn't that make more sense?"

"Well..." She'd been asking herself that same question as of late, and the fact that the kid had come to the same conclusion indicated she had been paying attention. That, once again, would be pretty useful when the time came, more useful perhaps than anything else Ryo and Brian could offer her. "Tell you what, since you're stuck on this ship like the rest of us I'll let you attend the briefing tomorrow night with the pilots. It's important to know what's going on around you." She turned back to the newbees, "Meanwhile, the two of you need to get fully rated on those new mobile suits by the time we make orbit. You have about thirty-one hours, so I suggest you hurry."  


_- 1411 hours (CST) -  
_ The pilot's voice was ragged and tired by now, still fluttering from the waves of pain surging from his hand through his arm and the rest of his body. One of his hands was staked to the table by Monsha's field knife, the other hung useless at his side from an arm broken in four different places. Ulyana Zabi was lying inert in the corner, her head so full of drugs she could barely roll in a strait line. She knew she would regret it, but Larson needed to hear what was going on inside. She turned up the volume just a bit on the monitor screen. "What do you want from me?! I already told you everything I know!"

Monsha grabbed the knife and twisted it to one side, then to the other, then back and forth a few times. The Zeon pilot tried to block it out, but lost control after a few seconds and howled from the pain. "You've told us a load of bullshit, maybe. I know you're protecting someone, and by keeping it secret you're putting THEM in more danger!"

"Go to hell! I don't know anything!"

Monsha frowned and glanced over to one of the soldiers aiding him. "Time for the bottle."

Captain Bosque grinned at the monitor, and Larson started to wonder what he could possible find funny about this. The Zabi girl hadn't given them any relative information so far, and neither had any of the other pilots Monsha had worked over in more traditional means. This one, it seemed, had been singled out for special treatment, and somehow Bosque found that amusing. "You enjoying this, Captain?"

"Lieutenant Monsha's very creative when he wants to be."

Larson looked at the monitor again. The other soldier handed him a bottle of catalyzed acid and Monsha opened it in front of the pilot's face. "I bet I know how to change your mind."

He shuddered in anticipation. "W-wait a second...!"

"There were four mobile suits guarding your factory block. All of them had been rebuilt within the last six months. Who paid for the maintenance on those machines?"

The pilot swallowed hard and took a few deep breaths. "I'm not lying to you. I don't know exactly who they are, but..."

"Wrong answer." Monsha popped the cap off the bottle and emptied half if it onto the back of her hand. It hit the open wound around the knife and sizzled, and the pilot howled like an animal. Larson felt her heart freeze for a few seconds until she turned the volume down on the monitor. The skin on the back of the prisoner's hand blistered and started to melt away. The pain increased with every second. "Gimme a name." Monsha said again.

"Shit, my hand...!"

"A name, you goddamn spacenoid! Gimme a name!"

Even the blade of the knife started to melt away from the acid. Another few moments and it would eat through his hand straight to the bone. He did his best to keep from passing out and coughed up the last little bit he could remember, "BREX FORRA!"

Bosque chuckled lightly. "Now we're getting somewhere."

The reaction was slowing down, and Monsha tilted the bottle over his hand, "Was he alone, or were there others?"

Even now he was gasping from the pain and his entire body was trembling. By some miracle he managed to contain himself just enough to spit it out, "There were others. This old guy from Granada and some other people..."

"Who were they?"

"I don't know! Believe me, I don't know them!" Monsha started to tilt the bottle again and he flew into a panic. "Uh... S-Something about the Anti-Earth Union Group, that's all I know! Brex represented some kind of political movement and I heard someone mention A.E.U.G.!"

Larson felt like she was going to pass out, but Captain Bosque chuckled again and folded his arms. "A.E.U.G.. I should have known." He picked up the microphone and called into Monsha's radio, "That's good enough Lieutenant. We have what we're looking for."

Monsha put the bottle back on the table and stood off a little. He almost seemed disappointed. "Hell, that didn't take long at all! Told you I was good!"

"I'm satisfied with your results, Lieutenant." Bosque said, still grinning.

Monsha folded his arms smugly, basking in his own personal spotlight for the time being. After another moment his eyes fixed on young Ulyana Zabi, lying in a heap in the corner of the room. "What about the kid? You need her for anything?"

Bosque didn't give it a second thought. "Unless you can think of another use for her, not really."

Monsha looked at the one-way mirror with a perverse little grin. "Ya know, I could think of a few things." He shared a quick glance with the two other Titans soldiers, both of whom suddenly returned his mischievous grin. "I'll get my camera."

"Good call, Lieutenant." One of the soldiers nodded his way, moved towards the girl with his field knife in hand.

Bosque put his cap back on and started slowly towards the door. "Remember, Admiral Carter needs the girl alive. Project N is more important than any your recreational preferences. Do as you like, but DO NOT injure that girl."

"Yes sir," On the way out of the room, Monsha picked up the bottle again and on a whim poured the last of the liquid onto the back of the pilot's hand. It caught the prisoner by surprise, and this time he screamed even louder as the acid started to burn through bone and cartilage, some even dripping through to the table underneath. "Woops!" Monsha laughed and swaggered out of the room towards his quarters.

Larson sprang up and leapt out of the open doorway, pushing past Captain Bosque and flying on down the corridor like an escaped convict. Bosque shook his head in wonder. "Imagine that, a Zeon with a weak stomach."

She kicked a few Titans officers out of her way on her mad dash down the corridors of the ship, stopping only once at a window to confirm for herself that the ship really was still in port here in this colony. She made a beeline for the nearest airlock and flung herself into the open bay block without a thought, simply relieved to be away from this ship with all of these people. Her momentum kept her going, and she floated halfway across the dock, away from the Alexandria, away from Monsha and the interrogation room. Away from the Titans. For the first time now she wondered if she was getting more than she bargained for by making this deal with Admiral Marquis, if maybe she was playing with fire and had just seen what happens when someone gets burned.

Someone grabbed hold of her arm as she coasted on down the bay block. She looked over absently, followed the hand to the scarred, tired face of Galen Morales. "Hiya, Rugrat."

Larson stared at him blankly at first, then turned herself around and planted her feet on the ground next to him. "Galen, I think we're in trouble."

Galen nodded, apparently already knowing what she was talking about. "Rugrat, trouble doesn't even begin to describe it."

_- 1420 hours (CST) -  
_ It stood sixty feet tall on the storage rack in the starboard hangar, a blue and white war machine built for one purpose alone. Two beam sabers, two armored coverings on the forearms for additional weapons, two vernier packs attached to the legs for even greater speed. The beam rifle and the hyper bazooka were locked against the bulkhead next to it and a slot in the deck just below could dispense spare ammo on demand. This mobile suit could be ready for combat in seconds and once in space, it would have no equal in the universe.

Ryo had never been so disappointed. He'd heard so much talk about Gundams being the ultimate mobile suits for years and years, even seen on in action himself during the One Year War, but from the specs in his hand and the look of the mobile weapon towering above him, it might as well have been a supped up ball. "There's gotta be more to it than this..." He mumbled, looking up at the gigantic machine with a desperate gleam in his eye. "What am I missing? There's gotta be something I'm not seeing here."

He looked at the Gundam for a few more moments before Kelly poked his head out of the cockpit with a laptop tucked under his arm. "We're ready up here, Ryo."

"Okay." Ryo pushed off the deck and drifted up to the hatch, looking over the mobile suit more closely as he rose to join the mechanics. _ What don't I know about this thing?_ He thought again.

Kelly grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the cockpit with the others and suddenly Ryo had a partial answer to his question. He'd never seen a cockpit like this before; it looked like a miniature I-Max theatre wrapped around a pilot's seat with a few controls in the arms and the panel. All his skepticism suddenly faded away. "What the hell is this?"

"This," Kelly gestured around in a circle, "Is a panoramic monitor cockpit. It's the latest thing in mobile suit technology, but in another year it'll be standard."

Ryo stepped inside and glanced around the sphere curiously. It was larger than a regular cockpit, perhaps big enough for three or four people to squeeze into it including the pilot. "How does it work?"

"The FLIR system in your helmet follows the movement of your head and the Gundam tracks accordingly. When you... hold on," Kelly reached for the panel on the side of the chair and tapped three buttons. The monitor crackled in static and switched on, giving them a full 360-degree view of everything around the Gundam in all directions. "When you want to zoom in, you set your target and the computer opens a separate window for you." Kelly tapped one switch on the joystick. One of the cameras in the Gundam's eye zoomed in on a single spot and the computer opened a display window in the monitor: the image of Lucy's rear end magnified forty times so it filled the front of the monitor. "That's nice aint it?"

"Very." Ryo nodded at the image. "And the system's good too."

"Uh huh. Targeting is done the same way. Keep in mind, the system can only scan or search images in your forward filed of vision, so if you want to zoom in or scan around you need to be looking in the right direction."

"Is there an override?"

Kelly frowned. "Not in these models. Lieutenant Wilson has one in hers but her system's pretty different. Theoretically, a newtype shouldn't really NEED an auto-system override so they didn't bother to install one."

Ryo sat down in the pilot's seat and practiced for a moment or two, locking on to specific objects and zooming in, targeting weapons and trajectories. It all seemed extremely easy. "How helpful is this in combat?"

"Depends on the pilot. Naomi was telling me..." Both of them saw a flash of movement in the monitor and saw something float past the Gundam. Ryo zoomed in on it and saw a human figure in a white t-shirt and short-shorts disappear around the corner of the mobile suit right in front of them.

"Wasn't that...?" Ryo pushed off the chair and slipped out of the cockpit, pushed forward to the other Gundam. He came up behind it, slipped under its arm and peaked around the corner to find Alice groping around the surface of the mobile suit for the door controls. "Alice, what are you doing here? You know this area's off limits."

"I know, I'm looking for that dipshit brother of mine."

Ryo came up next to her and guided her hand to the controls. The hatch opened when she pulled the lever and Brian poked his head out in confusion. "What's going on?"

"I'm hungry."

"Get Ryo to feed you. I'm busy right now." He slipped back into his cockpit but Alice reached out and caught his arm. "Alice..."

"I missed breakfast because of that scramble. Brian, you're responsible for me until I get used to this ship, remember?"

Brian pulled his arm free and slipped back into the cockpit. "I'll take you in a minute, right now I have to finish this."

Alice growled and sat down in the hatch opening, but in curiosity Ryo poked his head into the cockpit. "What the hell? This suit doesn't have the new cockpit system."

Brian's fingers were flying over a keyboard on the panel next to him and all his attention was on the side monitor. "So I've noticed."

"I thought the panoramic monitor was gonna be mainstream?"

Brian shrugged. "Well look at it. It's a totally different model."

Ryo backed out of the cockpit and looked over Brian's Gundam more carefully. It looked vaguely like the Alex series, but its armor was thicker in most spots, including the cockpit. It had two massive shoulder cannons on either side of the head and the legs were laden with verniers and shock absorbers around the knees. The armor covers on the arms were absent, with a single Luna-Titanium plate welded to the lengths of the forearms. Unlike his own mobile suit, Ryo could immediately see the power of this new model. "Hmmm..."

"They call it Mudrock. It's an old prototype leftover from the One Year War."

Ryo slipped back into the cockpit and sat down on Brian's front instrument panel, watching him work curiously. He looked at the monitor and the consol he was working on and suddenly realized he had no idea what Brian was doing. "It's just a mobile suit, what the hell is taking you so long?"

Brian reached over his head without looking and pulled something down from a compartment. "This little gizmo."

He handed it to Ryo and he turned it in his hands; a space helmet to a pilot's normal suit. "Fancy helmet." He put it on and turned his head from side to side. "It's a bit heavy, isn't it?"

"Do me a favor, will you?" Brian grabbed two wires from the overhead compartment and handed them off to Ryo. "Plug these in to the ports, right in the back."

Alice turned her head slightly and listened more closely.

Ryo took the wires in hand, felt around the back of the helmet for the jacks and plugged all four of them into the helmet. "Now what?"

Brian didn't answer him at all, simply reached across the cockpit and flipped a switch.

Ryo didn't feel anything different at first. He stood there looking at Brian, still expecting an explanation. "What is this thing?"

Brian tapped in a quick command on his keyboard and then chuckled. "Check this out."

"Brian, seriously, what is thi..." The sound of his own voice trailed off into the background and as he watched the entire world seemed to pull away, as if his eyes themselves were zooming all the way out. Soon his eyes were useless entirely, the world fell away into oblivion, no sound, no sight, no smells of any kind. He wondered for a moment if he had been injected with some kind of drug until, in one dramatic flash, the whole world came crashing right back into him again. He could see, he could hear, everything was exactly where it was a second before. "What the hell was that?"

"Close your eyes." Brian said smugly.

Ryo hesitated, then dropped his eyelids. It wasn't that he could see anything, but all around him seemed to be a ghost world he could physically interact with. He could sense the bulkhead next to the mobile suit, the main hatch far ahead, the catapult tracks next to the Gundam's feet and everything else that moved in the hangar. He could sense the temperature of the air, the wall, and when he looked down even his own body heat and the outlines of Alice's body on every spectrum from microwave to ultra-violet. And something else... something in his mind told him that his weapons were locked onto Alice... He opened his eyes again and the ghost world vanished, but he could see Alice framed on Brian's monitor with crosshairs lined up in the middle of her chest. "Holy shit!"

"That's wild, isn't it?" Brian shut off the monitor and flipped the switch again.

Ryo felt a sudden buzz and a short surge of disorientation, then it was back to normal again. He took the helmet off a blinked a few times to make sure the ghost world was gone. "What the hell was that?"

"It's called a Psychommu interface. They installed this new system in the Mudrock as a field test and they're hoping to get battle data from us Newtypes. Astonage says it's designed to translate sensory and system information directly into the pilot's brain, without even needing a monitor. You don't see things so much as your brain knows what's going on."

Ryo grinned. "Newtype system...?"

"The ultimate in situational awareness, makes eyesight redundant. Cuts out the middle man, ya know? You can get all the data from the mobile suit at once without even having to see it. The cockpit's configured so a bli..." He stopped himself too late and looked over Ryo's shoulder. For just an instant he began praying she hadn't overheard that, but after a moment he could tell even that one slip didn't get past her.

Ryo glanced back himself, already certain they'd said too much in the presence of someone so notoriously impulsive. "What's the catch?"

"The catch is, if the machine's not tuned properly or the data stream malfunctions, the interface will fry your brain. Astonage gave me the maintenance program and I have to check it every few days to make sure it's configured properly."

Something about the comment seemed more than a little contrived. "How do you know how to do that?"

Brian looked up at him with a grin. "I've got skills, man."

"Whatever." Ryo backed out of the cockpit once again, pulled back and put his hand on Alice's shoulder. "C'mon, let's go eat."

"And Brian?"

"You know how he is. Let's just go."

Ryo took her hand and bounded off the side of the mobile suit. Alice stayed with him, but couldn't help turning back in Brian's direction as they drifted towards the door. Her eyes saw nothing, but she could see Brian suspended in the center of that nothingness fourteen meters above the deck, crouching over a haze of something she couldn't quite make out. The only reason she could see him was for the pressure he was generating; he was trying way too hard for this to be routine maintenance. _ Why don't you call it a day? Astonage can take care of it until you figure it all out._

Brian wiped the sweat off his forhead and his fingers moved faster on the keyboard. _ Sorry Alice, but I don't like other people touching my mobile suit._

_ Really? What'll you do if someone ELSE pilots it?_

Brian laughed to himself and shouted out from the cockpit, "I've got plenty of duct tape and this ship has plenty of walls..."

Alice jerked her arm free and spun back around, shouting up into the mobile suit, "You wouldn't DARE!"

Brian paused from the keyboard and leaned out of the cockpit to shout back. "Better yet, the Tarawa needs a hood ornament!"

"You...!" Alice saluted him with the appropriate finger, yanked her arm free of Ryo and stormed off towards the hatch. Her path was just a little bit off, and she smacked into the wall two feet to the left of the door. "Heh... I uhhh... I meant to do that."

"Yeah right." Ryo grabbed her arm and guided her back to the doorway. Alice turned at the opening and shot one last angry glance in Brian's direction._ Fancy newtype system... we'll see about that._   
__

- 1610 hours (CST) -  
Galen turned the glass in his hands and watched his reflection in the amber liquid rippling in the tiny alcoholic waves. For just a moment he imagined he was watching his own death in the bottom of the glass; it was a sign that he needed another drink. "So you joined the Zeon, huh?"

"That's right." Gwen took a sip of her own glass and leaned heavily over the counter. "Admiral Marquis made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

Galen signaled the bartender for another drink. "Believe it or not, he made the same offer to Captain Black and the rest of us. Said something about ideals and visions and future profits that would transcend just money and possessions."

"When you think about it, it doesn't sound too attractive. But really, to be independent from Earth is much more important to us than materialism, especially at a time like this."

Galen smirked at her. "You just felt the urge to make a difference before your time was up."

"That too."

Galen chuckled as the bartender set a new drink next to the half-finished first one. He emptied the old into the new and took a large sip of it. "I was just thinking, maybe you've got more time left than you think. I mean, you DO look pretty good for your age."

Larson did a double take and stopped just short of punching him. "What's that about my age?"

"How old are you anyway? Forty-five? Fifty?"

This time she abandoned restraint; she punched him in the side of the head and knocked him off the barstool. "Asshole! I'm only thirty!" She sat back down on her own stool and muttered, "...ish."

Galen struggled back to his feet and took another sip of his drink. "Thirtyish stops at thirty nine, Rugrat. Unless I'm mistaken, you're about to jump the hill like a speeding truck."

Gwen groaned, feeling the reality all too well. "Do I look that old, Galen?"

"Nah. You look like… maybe a tired twenty six."

Her cheeks turned a few shades redder. "I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." They sat in silence for a few more minutes, both nursing glasses of scotch without thinking or needing to say anything else. Gwen's nerves were still fluttering from the memory of the interrogation room, but with the rising blood-alcohol level she was beginning to relax. "The Titans are monsters, Galen." She said absently.

"Are they really?"

"Monsters, every one of them. I just watched them butcher a guy for some meaningless scraps of information, and now that pervert Monsha's locked himself in a room with a seventeen year old girl..."

"And even before then, when they attacked the colony. Fifty-three dead, two hundred wounded, most of the colony still without power or running water. I'd like to think they at least care about the colony more than the Zabis do."

"That's why I joined Marquis. Axis is no different from the Zabi bastards they worship, and the Titans... screw the Titans. Human life is cheap to those people. They'd wipe us all out if the thought it would help them somehow."

Something about the remark rubbed Galen the wrong way. From anyone else he would have agreed, but he knew Gwen too well to take her at her word. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

"Excuse me?"

"Rugrat, I suggest you go and take good hard look in the mirror before you start criticizing the Titans."

She turned in the stool, leering at him, but in a flash she saw the truth in his words and directed her attention back to her drink. "Fifteen years ago... I'm not the same person I was back then, Galen."

"Of course not. But fifteen years ago you would have joined the Titans without a second thought. Sometimes it's too easy to ignore the suffering of others, even your own family."

Gwen finished it off with one strong gulp and left her tab on the bar. "So I'm a monster myself, right Galen?"

"If you weren't, your son and your daughter would still be alive."

Gwen stepped off the stool and wandered off towards the door. "I told you, I was a cold hearted bitch. I never said I was proud of it."_   
_

- 1811 hours, (CST) -  
Somehow it seemed odd to Naomi that Alice was paying such close attention to the briefing despite the fact that she couldn't see any of the charts or displays on the screen. Eric was barely paying attention at all, Chase and Lucy were committing it all to memory, and the newbees Brian and Ryo were actually taking notes. They were already ten minutes into the briefing and none of them had even nodded off yet. That was a good sign. "We're not sure why satellites didn't notice it before, but we're aware of it now and we have the element of surprise. The facility is buried about 600 feet underground, deep in the side of the mountain in a large excavation or cavern. The terrain around it's pretty typical for Afghanistan: it sucks."

"So we're in for a bit of a hike, huh?" Eric said, his mind wandering to a vision of the long march.

"Not on your life. If we try and move in on foot with that terrain, there's a 99% chance we're going to be ambushed before we even get close. The operative plan is to drop in on them from above and try catch them off guard, and to preserve the element of surprise we'll have to drop in the mobile suits from orbit on the first pass."

"Then no support from the ship?" Lucy added anxiously.

"Not right away. The Tarawa will make one orbit after we drop the suits and re-enter at the next window about sixty minutes later. We can expect support about two hours into the operation."

"Two hours?" Lucy wrote the time index for the start of the operation on the back of her hand and wrote under it the time the Tarawa would be expected. "The mission will probably be over by then anyway."

Naomi nodded silently, though inwardly she had a few doubts. "Normally we'd leave this up to ground forces, but part of what we do is counter intelligence and it's important to make sure we don't loose valuable assets in the raid."

"What kind of assets?" Ryo said, jotting down a few notes in the little book on his knee.

"We need to capture as many prisoners as possible, and recover some of their equipment intact to trace it back to its origins. But more than that, satellites have detected sporadic heat blooms deep underground, possibly reactor spikes from a Zanzibar class vessel. If this is the case, our objective will be to encourage the Zeon forces to launch the ship and then allow it to escape. The assault carrier Trafalgar will trail the ship from a distance as it enters orbit and then follow it to wherever the crew decides to go."

Ryo jotted down another note and turned his notebook slightly. Lucy sat up with a question of her own. "And what's the enemy strength around the base?"

"At least twelve mobile suits, with perhaps two squadrons of Dopps and a few Megalla platoons."

"What's OUR ground support look like?" Brian asked.

Naomi was afraid someone would ask that. "That's the bad news. Because of the rough terrain, the Federation has essentially no presence whatsoever in this region so we won't be getting any support from them." There came a chorus of groans from around the room and Naomi held up her hand to quiet them, "The good news is we've made contact with some of the local Mujahadeen, and they seem willing to cooperate at least for this mission. They couldn't promise anything, but if nothing else we can expect artillery support from their mobile suits."

Chase sighed and slouched down in his seat. "Better than nothing, I guess..."

Alice raised her hand shyly and stood up a bit. "Question!"

Naomi smiled at her. "Yes, Alice?"

"Do you know why they haven't surrendered yet?"

"What do you mean?"

"The war's been over for four years. Do you know why these guys didn't surrender when the other Zeons retreated from the planet?"

It was an honest question, something most people took as self-explanatory. "Some of the zeeks weren't satisfied when war was over. A surprising number of them still wanted to keep fighting even after..."

"Yeah, I know all that. But listen, there's twelve mobile suits, two squadrons of fighters, some tanks, a Zanzibar class warship and probably lots of ammo sitting under their base. That's alot of firepower, but they're not using any of it."

"I don't understand your question."

"If they still wanted to fight, how come they didn't help the Delaz Fleet?"

Everyone in the room turned around and looked at her, suddenly wondering much the same thing themselves. Even Naomi had to stop and think about it for a few seconds, "Well... it's uh... it's complicated." Alice looked disappointed, but didn't sit down right away. Naomi eyed her for a few moments, then started to get impatient. "You have another question?"

"Just that... well, don't you think it's dangerous to go attacking an enemy with a huge arsenal if you don't even know what they're planning to do with it?"

Naomi scoffed at the remark. "What do you want us to do, send them a fruit basket?"

"No... but I think we should send someone in to the base to try and spy on them first. Or at least talk to them and understand what they're doing here. What if we go and kill all these people and they don't intend to attack anyone at all?"

Brian turned slowly, whispering over his shoulder, "That's enough, Alice. Sit down."

"But can't we just...?"

"SIT DOWN!"

_ Can't I just ask one damn question?!_

Brian's response lasted just a fraction of a second, _ It makes no difference. Naomi doesn't make those decisions, she's under orders from our superiors. C'mon, Alice, we don't like this any more than you do, but you're not making it any easier for us. Stop being childish, you know how this works._

"Yeah, I know." Alice sighed and sat back down in her chair. "Sorry guys."

"Don't worry about it." No one else was wise to it, but Naomi could tell there was more being said than what was being heard. This was one of the more important mental notes she had taken since Alice came aboard: _ They must be connected somehow. I can't do anything with one of them without the other knowing about it..._ Even in the midst of her briefing, a plan was starting to form in her mind. As sneaky and devious as Alice seemed to be, it followed logically that even she could be manipulated into cooperating with her.

And yet, by pure coincidence, Alice was thinking exactly the same thing about her at exactly the same moment.


	6. Chapter 5: Drop Zone

__

Only a coward hides behind machines and armor, fights battles with the touch of a button without even seeing his enemies in person. A true warrior defeats his enemies face to face, hand to hand, a battle of wits and willpower; that is the true test of a fighter's honor... of course, when I think about it, I'd rather be a coward in a Zaku than an honorable smear on the pavement.

- Ramba Ral  
- Zeon Military Academy commencement speech-- April 5, UC 0079

* * *

****

Chapter 5: Drop Zone

_- February 6, UC 0084 -  
- 0710 hours (CST) -  
_Alice held her breath under the near-scalding hot water and listened to the sound of her own heart beating in her ears. She was in her own world here, a new place devoid of sensation and pain, no smells, no pressures, and as always no sight, a world containing only her and the sound of her heartbeat filling her ears. She heard her heart speeding up in her chest and her face broke the surface again. The water drained from her ears and she returned to the real world of the Tarawa's officer's quarters. "We should have done this a long time ago." She said lazily, kicking her feet up on the end of the Jacuzzi. "A luxury battleship. Who'd have thunk it?" 

Brian groaned in a half-hearted protest and slapped his magazine down on the sink. "And to think, all we had to do was join the Gestapo to get it."

Alice splashed feet in the bubbly water and rolled over on her side. "They're not Titans, Brian. Okay, sure they take orders from stuck-up Earthnoids. These days, who doesn't?"

"You shouldn't just be a doormat all the time. Spacenoids have rights too."

"They said they had their reasons."

Brian flipped to another page of the magazine and sifted positions in his chair. "What reasons could justify working for the Titans?"

"I dunno. Maybe somebody's little sister needed to use a hot tub?"

Brian stared at her for a moment, then chuckled and went back to his magazine. "Touché."

Alice sat up a bit and spoke more loudly, "And another thing, you guys fought with Dieter again, didn't you?"

Brian hesitated to answer. "No..."

"Don't lie to me, I can tell."

"Okay, yeah. Dieter was there, and we fought with him. And we almost got him too, but as usual he ran away before we could finish the fight."

Alice groaned in disappointment. "What about all that bullshit you taught me about spiritual brotherhood and all? You talk all self righteous, and yet you two go around chasing after some brainless automaton?"

"You know, we're soldiers. Killing people is part of what we do for a living."

Alice sat up fully and reached for the drain on the tub. "But what if you have to kill someone who's not your enemy? That's not right at all."

"Maybe not, but that's what happens sometimes. Most of us fight because of the side we're on. But every once in a while, there's a personal reason." She pulled her legs up and stood up completely, and Brian handed her a fresh towel. "C'mon, Alice, you know what he represents. I'm surprised you don't want a piece of him yourself."

"I don't. He's never done anything to me."

"How can you say that?"

"Because it's true, he doesn't even know I exist. And you know what Casval would say, newtypes should never fight each other unless it's personal. Anything else is a waste of energy."

Brian laughed to himself. "Is THAT what's been bothering you? All this disagrees with your ideals?"

Alice wrapped the towel around her beneath the shoulders. "Having ideals is kinda pointless if you won't follow them. That's called hypocrisy."

"I do follow them. But sometimes ideals have to take a back seat to reality." He helped her out of the tub and dried her hair with another towel. "We've got a big day ahead. You ready to go to Earth?"

"Hell no."

"Why not?"

"I'm afraid of Earth. I keep thinking some big monster's gonna climb into the ship and try to eat me or something." 

"Don't be such a worry wart."

Alice wandered towards the sink and searched around for the faucet; her hand grazed the side of Brian's magazine. "What are you reading anyway?"

"Angler Publications."

Alice shoved him against the wall and hissed at him anxiously, "Don't say that out loud!"

"Why not?"

"What if Mike puts that in his report? We could get hanged!"

Three doors away, behind the control panel linked to the array of microphones strategically placed in Brian's quarters, Lieutenant Jenson flipped backwards out of his chair in surprise and landed on the back of his head. Lucy knelt down next to him and pulled him back to his feet, "What? What'd they say?"

"Nothing, nothing," Mike unplugged the headset and turned off the recorder in the panel. "Let's call it a day, huh? They're not up to anything."

"Are you sure? Naomi wants at least 48 hours surveillance before we give them access to the new Gundams..."

"It's almost 48 hours, that's good enough. Let's call it quits."

Lucy stared at him for a few moments, but decided after a moment's thought he had his reasons. "Your call, Mike."

As soon as she left the room, Mike went back to the microphone and listened in again. Their conversation hadn't even been thrown off by the comment, almost as if they took for granted that someone was monitoring their every move. He counted his blessings and shut off the equipment; the instant the microphone clicked off, Alice tugged on Brian's arm, "Brian, we're chasing a dead-end here. You're not gonna help me this way, we'd get better results at the Flanagan Institute."

"Actually, I think we're finally on the right track. The Tarawa's not exactly a special unit, but it looks like our immediate superiors are EXTREMELY well connected. If we get on their good side, they'd do little research, run a few tests, maybe give you an operation or two... who knows? Maybe it'll all work out like we hoped?"

Alice was doubtful, but as usual she differed to his judgment. "I still think this is a dead end. I'll think positive, but I'm not expecting any miracles."  


  
- 0710 hours (CST) -  
Duncan put in the codes one last time on the keyboard of his laptop, this time double-checking for any mistakes that would confuse the computer even further. Finally he got a response, and the diagnostic program came up with a set of data he could understand. "Great! NOW we're getting somewhere!" He followed the lines of problem codes and came to the one relevant one he was looking for. "Huh… the reactor output's too low. That makes sense…"

"You've got to learn to test your machine by feel alone, Deuce." Vanessa called to him across the hangar. "You won't always have time to check your computer in the middle of a battle."

Duncan turned off the computer and tucked it under his arm. "I'm still not used to this Regelg. I'll get the hang of it eventually."

Vanessa pushed off the belly of her Rickdom Sniper and came to perch on the railing of the lift in front of the Regelg. "Got used to the Zeong, did you?"

"Well yeah, but there's something to be said for speed and finesse. Like the Red Comet, you know?"

Vanessa laughed gently. "Deuce, Char flew the Zeong prototype too."

"Yeah, but he did his best work with a supped up Zaku. THAT'S the real Red Comet."

She punched him in the shoulder and pushed past him into the cockpit of the Regelg. "If it's speed and finesse you're after, you should wait until Anaheim finishes the new mobile suits for us."

"The Rick Dias, you mean?"

"Yeah. They're supposed to be quite a bit faster than your Regelg."

Duncan moved in behind her and shoved her out of his seat. "That's what you said about the Galbaldys. I'm still skeptical."

Vanessa moved back to the hatch of the mobile suit and beamed at him. "Are you excited, Deuce?"

"About what?"

"Your girlfriend. You know we're due to intercept Tarawa within the next two hours."

Duncan looked up from the control panel with a sudden gleam in his eye. "Have I been down here working all this time? I didn't even notice."

"Of course you want everything to be perfect for your big date..."

"That's not it." Duncan punched in a command into the computer and the system opened the armored covering on the torso for access. "You're not taking this seriously at all. You think Amuro Ray's a dangerous enemy? You have no idea what we're really up against."

Vanessa watched him for a moment, followed him as he left the cockpit and floated up to the open covering on the chest of the Regelg. "You admire her, don't you?"

"Get real." Two mechanics came over to join him in the work, but Duncan waved them off, intent on finishing this himself. "Anyway, what's the word from the Dupont? I heard they couldn't get those new mobile suits."

"They were running behind schedule. The transport was too close to the rendezvous point and they ended up loosing four of their mobile suits."

Duncan wasn't the least bit surprised. He'd come to expect that from Dieter's unit, but the actual significance of their sortie was hard to ignore. "Intelligence?"

"They've got a couple new pilots, and apparently Dieter's familiar with both of them. He's submitting a report to Admiral Marquis right now, and of course there's Lieutenant Larson on the Alexandria if we need more details."

Duncan new Larson by reputation only, which as far as he was concerned was all he preferred to know. "I don't see why we're so caught up with the Tarawa anyway. They're just Jamitov's cannon fodders..."

"The Titans are still building up their forces, so those little carrier groups are their temporary muscle until they're ready. If we take care of them, we can move freely in space without Jamitov coming down on us." Vanessa sensed his growing excitement in the coming battle. She backed off now to give him some space to himself. "Don't waste too much time with the Merrimac, okay? Our main objective is the Gundams."

"Right, right." Inwardly, Duncan had no intention of going after the Tarawa at all. The ship was no longer an issue for him, it seemed like he could fight pilots of that stature any day of the week. _Here I come, Alicia. I'll sink the Merrimac and you with it..._  
__

  
- 0820 hours (CST) -  
Captain Bosque was impressed with what he was seeing, so much so that he almost wished he could have been present at the actual testing of the machines. The Gundam on his monitor stood over twenty meters from head to toe, laden with beam cannons and reinforced weapon systems strong enough to battle the fiercest mobile armors. Just these movement tests brought a twinge of excitement to his heart. "This is the new model you've been working on, Carter?"

"MRX-07 Flash Gundam. Psycho's little brother. This recording is from the third test flight two days ago." Admiral Carter paused a moment and watched the recording another moment. The ruined hull of a Megellan class battleship came into view, and the giant mobile suit squared up to it and opened an array of coolant vents on its torso. With no warning at all, one open panel on its chest surged with light and a powerful blast of mega-particles tore the hull to ribbons with a single burst. "The scattering beam cannon is actually based on the smaller device used in the Zeon's Rickdom mobile suits, though as you can see it's about four hundred times more powerful. It'll not only blind your target, but also vaporize him and anything standing next to him at that moment. Psycho Gundam will install a similar weapon system."

Bosque nodded in appreciation. "That's Conner piloting, isn't it?"

"Of course. Despite his emotional instability, he's an amazing pilot. The only one better is Ashitaka, but of course he's off the roster for the time being."

Bosque watched the mobile suit maneuvering again, struggling apparently with its massive bulk, yet moving with a kind of grace he wouldn't have expected. "The Murasame Institute is singing the praises of the Psycho Gundam even though they've yet to produce a working model. We're coming up on that deadline very quickly, and Colonel Jamitov wants to see some results."

"Same for me, Captain, but there's no escaping the reality of this situation. The problems with the technology aren't too difficult to cope with, the strides we've made with the Flash Gundam should say as much. It turns out that the main problem is the system's biological elements."

"The pilot, you mean?"

Carter turned off the monitor and turned the lights back up. "Conner and Miranda are responding well to programming, but in case you haven't noticed, Ashitaka's... well... he's nuts. Fact is the conditioning drove him into a deep psychosis and now he's a danger to himself and everything within a hundred feet of him. But you put him in a Flash Gundam, the machine takes over. It's like he can't even think rationally unless he's in the cockpit of the prototype."

Bosque had read this in Carter's last report, but this reminder was more of a subtle inquiry to that subject. "We've been paying close attention to your work, Admiral. Don't worry, we're well aware of your difficulties."

"That's a great load off my mind," Carter's voice carried an after-taste of sarcasm despite the truth of the words. "Professor Murasame's tinkering with a few new strategies. He thinks we could probably keep the pilots in a stable condition by training them to take on passive and active modes of combat. You know, like a guard dog that only attacks when you say a password or something."

"Keep them docile until we need their teeth?"

"Exactly. Theoretically, they could still engage in combat even in passive modes, but their true abilities wouldn't appear unless switched into their more aggressive modes."

This sounded promising. As little as Bosque new about artificial newtypes or psychological warfare, even he could see the benefits of this idea by common sense alone. "Have you tried this with any of them?"

"The professor wants to try it on Ashitaka first before we do the same with any of the other subjects. Of course, you know we WILL have to erase his memory in order to correct his programming."

Bosque heaved himself out of the chair and started again for the door. "Whatever you're going to do, do it quickly. Admiral Hunter's had some problems of his own on Granada..."

"Granada?" Carter stood up to follow him out, but Bosque stopped him at the door. "I haven't heard any of this. What kind of problems?"

"Never mind the details, I'll just say our old friend Brex is up to his old tricks again. The point is the new models won't be ready for mass production any time soon. If Hunter can't make the deadline, we'll just have to push the Hizack into mass production."

Carter nodded gravely, and Bosque departed the room without further interruption. The conversation hardly ended there, but Bosque was no longer a part of it. The very idea that he'd been left out of the loop in this situation very much worried him, as if the Titans were telling him enough so he would keep Project N operational without too many complaints. But Project N was part of much larger armament program, one that required every element to be in place in order to succeed. There were too many setbacks --the RX-179s being only the most recent-- and yet the schedule remained the same. The Titans were moving much too fast already. "Commander Jamaican," he punched a com line on the desk in the front of the briefing room, "Get a shuttle ready for me in fifteen minutes. I'll be returning to the Wasp shortly."

"Leaving so soon, Admiral? I would have thought you'd at least stay to greet Admiral Dyson."

A chill wound its way down Carter's spine. If he'd had anything to say to Dyson in person, it would be the last thing the man would ever hear. "I'm afraid not. Just give me my regard when he arrives."

"I'll be sure to do just that, Admiral. Have a safe voyage."  
__

  
- 0830 hours (CST) -  
Captain Shiden was the last one onto the bridge, joining the rest of the crew in normal suits for the drop operation to Earth. The entire crew was at battle stations despite the almost complete lack of an enemy presence here, but almost anything was possible in operations like this. As soon as the Captain took his seat, he picked up a handset and signaled on a broad frequency. "Tarawa to all ships, commence operation as planned."

The Tarawa opened both of its mecha hangars on command. The Tarawa's three cruiser escorts did the same; Merrimac and Hunley in the front and Memphis in the rear, all raising their three GMs to their decks for launch.

Naomi stood at the base of the Alex and looked at it with a distasteful expression. The suit looked oppressively bulky with the ballute packs equipped, like a camper on a long hike up the side of a mountain. "Ugh! It's so ugly!"

Lucy bounded off the deck behind her into her own mobile suit. "Quit complaining. You're just gonna throw it away after reentry anyway."

"Not soon enough." Naomi bounced up from the deck and swung into Alex's cockpit, still groaning at the inhibitive bulk of the re-entry system strapped to her suit. The launch bays of the Tarawa were already open, but the mobile suits wouldn't launch until the Tarawa was in the right position. "Okay people, listen carefully. This approach will be extremely dangerous, even with the ballute shields. Watch your spacing so we don't have any mid-air collisions during re-entry."

Brian laughed cynically. "Mid-air collision at mach-twenty... that would really suck."

Ryo felt the worst about this arrangement. As it stood, he would be the first one out of the starboard hangar while Naomi would be the first out of port. There was some consolation that Brian would be right behind him; at least he knew he could count on him not to get them both killed. "I'm still unsure about this Lieutenant."

"We all are, don't worry. Just follow the computer's projections and you'll be okay." Naomi heard a high-pitched whistle in her headset and watched a digital display dance across her forward monitor. "It's time. All mobile suits, launch!"

Ryo pushed the throttles to front and pressed the foot pedals down. The next sensation was a surge of gravity slamming him back into his seat, then suddenly he was in open space. Naomi's Gundam burst out of the ship behind him and quickly began adjusting its angle of descent towards Earth. "This isn't so bad," He said after a moment. He felt more comfortable now that he'd actually launched, almost content now.

Brian was up next. He took one last breath to reassure himself and flipped the switch on the Psycommu interface. He felt the familiar moment of disorientation as the shadow world moved over his eyes and the cockpit around him disappeared, replaced by a colorless montage of imagery and data he could barely discern as objects themselves. None of it looked like anything he could recognize as a ship or a mobile suit or even a planet, and yet somehow he could clearly tell exactly what he was looking at in any given direction. He looked towards his feet and saw two pulsating swirls of energy; the catapult was powering up. "Gundam Murdock, launching now!" Brian fired his thrusters and felt the rush of acceleration, and in almost that same instant a new alert siren surged to life from the bowels of the Tarawa itself.

The radar screen on the bridge was cloudy from the sudden Minovsky jamming, but at this range anyone could clearly make out the set of enemy mobile suits closing on them at incredible speed. Captain Shiden had the briefest flashback to the One Year War. "I need details, Aaron! What kind of suits are they? How could they intercept us this quickly?"

Lieutenant Browning was simply at a loss for words. The only thing he knew was what he didn't know for sure. "Confirming at least six enemy mobile suits... probably Rickdoms, but they're moving a tad fast for that!"

"Time to intercept?"

"Forty seconds, sir!"

"Dammit!" Brian's mobile suit was already well on course, much too far to turn back to assist, but as he watched Lucy and Mike were only just clearing the hangars now. "Tarawa to all suits, we have enemy mobile weapons approaching from starboard! Lucy and Mike, return to ship immediately and provide support! The rest of you, continue mission as planned!"

Ryo looked back over his shoulder. He could see the enemy suits closing with his own eyes, almost close enough to shoot from here. "Lieutenant, we have to..."

"Stay on course, Ryo." Naomi said coldly.

"But the Tarawa...!"

"Stay on course, Ryo." She said again, emotionless and calculated. Ryo turned his attention back to the panel and adjusted his angle again. In another six minutes they'd be entering the atmosphere at an angle most people would call suicide just to get the drop on a few hapless Zeon holdouts. He was about to launch another complaint when he heard Naomi grumbling, "They're not payin me enough for this shit."

"Join the club." Ryo shot back.

"Join it? I OWN the club!"

Lucy released the clamps on the re-entry packs as she passed the Tarawa's engine pod, scanning the space ahead of her for the enemy suits. The three GMs and Balls from the Merrimac had doubled back as well and now the six of them were taking up a defensive formation around their battle group. She watched the enemies whirl around in space for a moment before the Merrimac's guns opened fire. Everything about this was wrong. "Mike, what's going on? They're playing around out there like..."

"They're not trying to interrupt the launch. In fact it doesn't look like they know we've spotted them." Mike sensed pressure from somewhere on his left. He dodge upwards, not taking any chances, but when he looked over his shoulder it became clear that the blast was not aimed at him.

The entire ship bucked violently from the sudden impact, tossing anything not bolted down into the air and spilling the contents of tables all over the gravity block. Everything on the bridge stopped completely for a few moments, and Captain Shiden already knew where they'd been hit without needing to ask. "Helm, standby to change orbits immediately! We can't land on Earth with only one good engine!"

"I'll try sir, but changing orbits aint much easier!"

"No excuses, just do it...!" Another powerful blast struck out from the void of space, this one tearing a chunk out of the cruiser Hunley not far behind the Tarawa. 

Mike followed the source of the shooting and scanned the area, finally picking up a heat signature his computer could recognize. "Shit, Lucy, it's that sniper again! The one with the bigass beam cannon!"

Lucy put the numbers together and came to the smartest conclusion. "I bet that crazy Gelgoog is with em too."

Ensign Focker's Guncannon slid easily out of the launch bay and set down just on top of the secondary bridge. He aimed his beam rifle in the direction of the shooting and pulled the targeting scope out from the back of his cockpit. "I got a visual, I think. Looks like a… like a Rickdom or something..." Chase zoomed in as far as the scope could go and followed the mobile suit as it moved, waited for it to stop and aim again to get a good look. It was definitely a Rickdom, only this model was equipped with a massive beam cannon almost the size of a mobile suit itself. He'd seen that weapon before, he recognized it, "He's got a Burstliener! Damn thing's got its own fusion reactor!"

Vanessa felt the pilots' energy peak suddenly. She changed positions as the Guncannon returned fire, giggling playfully at the enemy's sudden urgency. "I think I freaked em out, Deuce!"

"Good for you, but we came here to work, Sis!" Duncan circled around the four Federation warships, staying close to the far edges of their firing range looking for the best opening to get at the Merrimac. He stopped for just a moment and let the ship fire another powerful barrage his way with all of its guns. "Miss..." The beams streaked past him on all sides without him even needing to dodge. It looked like as good a chance as any. "Duncan to all mobile suits, engage the enemy and try to keep those two Gundams occupied. I'm going after the Merrimac."

All four Rickdoms turned where they were and made a single-file formation in flight towards the Tarawa. The first three loaded rakaten bazookas on their approach, with the last one drawing a heat saber in one hand and an MMP-80 machinegun in the other. 

Lucy saw them on approach, and she recognized the formation at the same time Duncan did. "A jet-stream attack! Well isn't that cute!"

Mike came up calmly behind her and switched off the safeties on his beam rifle. "How do you wanna break this?"

"I was kinda thinkin about that Delayed Bounce... how about a Windbreaker?"

"Fine with me. Chase, try to do something about that sniper."

Chase moved into a position halfway between the Tarawa and the Merrimac, using the greater bulk of the cruiser for partial cover from the sniper. He watched the Rickdom steady itself again to fire off another shot, this one he could tell aimed directly at him. He barely had enough time to line up the crosshairs before it could fire, but even in that time the Rickdom managed to move out of the way of his beam rifle. "Hurry up, Lucy! That guy's some kinda mutant!"

"Hang on, we'll be right with you!" Lucy was flying head-on towards the first Rickdom, shield in one had and beam rifle in the other. The lead Rickdom charged right in as usual, bazooka leveled at her head for the first attack. These pilots were hardly the seasoned veterans their tactics might indicate, but she still had to give them credit for trying. "Wait for it..." The distance closed to a hundred meters. This was the part where a rookie pilot would be wondering why the Doms weren't firing at him, "Wait for it..." The first one came into range and flashed it's scatter beam strait into her face. The flash blinded her for just a few moments, but Lucy didn't need to see. "NOW!" The scatter beam was Mike's signal to start the maneuver.

Lucy reversed thrust as hard as she could, feeling her stomach flatten itself against her ribcage. Mike shot past her on the left, catching the first Rickdom completely off guard and firing his beam rifle strait into its chest at point blank range. The reactor explosion knocked the other three Rickdoms out of their formation and sent them tumbling into space; one of them was too slow regaining control and thus fell victim to Lucy's 90mm forearm guns. The two survivors turned tail and sped to safety, Mike's Gundam hot on their tails to make sure they stayed gone for awhile. "Excellent! Sit tight, Chase! I'm on my way!" She fired her thrusters again and started back towards the Tarawa...

Almost as soon as she faced the ship she sensed an attack from her right side and twisted in space to avoid it. What she thought was a single shot was followed by a half dozen others, an aim so accurate she couldn't possibly avoid them all. The last beam in the series punched through the thickest part of her leg, exploding the fuel tanks and sending the mobile suit spinning off into space out of control. Chase heard only the sound of Lucy screaming on the radio, but he didn't dare look away from the Rickdom and give it a chance to take him out. "Lucy, what happened? You get hit?" He didn't look away from the Rickdom even now. Even as he spoke it steadied itself again, this time firing off its massive cannon before Chase could get off the shot. He dodged to one side, but part of the beam grazed his shoulder and melted the outer fringes of his armor, "Lucy, answer me! What's going on out there?!"

Lieutenant Dyson's voice exploded in his headset, "Guncannon, check six!"

He spun around on reflex and aimed the rifle, but before he even turned around the blast from Duncan's beam rifle stripped his right arm from his shoulder. Chase fired his thrusters and back-flipped, letting the next two blasts pass directly under and then over his torso, passing close enough to strip the paint from the armor. 

Duncan thought to finish the Guncannon and focus again on the Merrimac, but three crimson beams suddenly criss-crossed directly in his path, forcing him to stop in space and change directions away from his target. "Damn, those GMs again...!" 

Lieutenant Dyson could barely follow the suit's movements, but he could see well enough to know the Regelg was circling around for another pass. "Guncannon, you still in the game?"

"I'm fine, I'm not through yet..." At the last moment he remembered the sniper, and by some miracle fired his thrusters half a second before a powerful blast from Vanessa's cannon would have reduced him to a cloud of ash. He spun around on impulse and fired both cannons, but to no one's great surprise the shot was nowhere close to hitting him. "Lucy, Mike, I need some help here...!"

"He's coming around again!" Lieutenant Dyson took a few deep breaths and lined up his crosshairs over the speeding Regelg as it drew ever closer. He had his doubts how well a beam gun would work on a suit like this, but given his lack of options... "Alright gang, we'll only get one shot at this! Wait till he gets close, then hit him with everything you got!"

Vanessa dodged another twin blast from the Guncannon with such ease the suit no longer seemed to be a factor in this battle. She stopped in space and steadied herself, aiming the Burstliener along the hull of the Merrimac to find herself a target. "Stupid Duncan, I could have nailed that thing five times by now!" All she had was a consolation prize: One of the three GMs moving to engage Duncan on his drive towards the cruiser. She selected the one closest to the bridge and lined up her sights on its reactor block. "Duncan, try coming in from above."

He didn't need to read her mind to know what she was planning. "Copy that," Duncan moved up and away from the ship at first before arcing back towards it to come in from above the bridge of the ship. Lieutenant Dyson followed his move and adjusted his position to stay between the Regelg and the cruiser, and now as the Zeon came into range all three GMs opened fire...

The column of fire from the beam cannon burned through the mobile suit next to him, ending its existence in a gigantic fireball that knocked both of the GMs sideways, out of Duncan's way. It was just the opening he needed, and he didn't hesitate to take it.

Beam after beam rained down on the Merrimac from above its bridge, ripping the hull open in sections, stripping away gun turrets, armor plates, entire sections of armor around the flanks. Two of the beams struck down through the top of the bridge, punching all the way through the bridge to exit through the keel of the ship itself. Jets of flame started to belch from the new holes in the warship's hull, small explosions giving rise to larger explosions, spinning the ship on every axis like a row boat in a tsunami. The Merrimac was tearing itself apart from the inside; it was already dead.

Duncan passed over the doomed hull just before one final explosion consumed the bulk of it and split the superstructure in half. The force of the explosion almost knocked him into a spin, and yet there was something exhilarating about it. _Goodbye Alicia, _He thought smugly. "You're clear, Sis! Let's take out the Tarawa and get this over with!"

"It's about time!" Vanessa adjusted her position and aimed again. The expanding fireball of the Merrimac's death was partly obscuring her view, but she could just make out the shape of the Pegasus class assault carrier maneuvering beyond the carnage in front of her. She didn't need a direct hit, just enough to slow it down so she could finish it or even catch up later with another sortie. "And goodnight Tara..." Something flashed in front of her eyes and suddenly the view was different. The high-res image of the dying cruiser and the distant assault carrier were replaced now by a pair of furious green eyes in the middle of a Gundam's head behind the triple barrels of a gatling cannon. "Son of a bi...!"

Lucy's right arm unloaded the last of its ammo at point blank range, spraying the Rickdom from head to toe. The shells ripped through the body of the suit, smashed the main camera and all of the actuators and motors in the arms and legs. They shredded the giant beam cannon and the arm that held it, eventually cutting through all the way to the very core of the mobile suit to puncture the fuel tanks and reactor coolant.

The thrusters on the Rickdom's back were the first to go, and the rest of the suit followed very shortly. Lucy pulled away from the mobile suit and it disintegrated before her eyes. When she turned around to rejoin the battle she was surprised to find the Regelg charging towards her like a mad bull with its double beam saber drawn. She didn't give it any thought, simply waited for him to get close and the jinked sharply to one side like a mechanized matador. Duncan rushed past her like a freight train, slowing down only as it passed the wreckage of the demolished Rickdom. Just for good measure, Mike's Gundam and the two surviving GMs have a brief chase, firing a combined salvo to hasten his retreat. 

It was all over, Naomi breathed a long sigh of relief, despite the fact that the hardest part was still just ahead of them. "It's alright, the Tarawa's still there."

Ryo and Brian took one deep breath and exhaled slowly, then took in another one and held it as the first vibrations started. Ryo's monitors showed him the external temperature was rising and his speed was starting to drop off. All of them opened their ballute cushions at once, leaving all of them lying on their backs on a fabric shell through a raging inferno. "We're bouncing through the upper atmosphere. Here comes the fun part." Ryo said cynically.

The one-legged Gundam touched down gingerly on the front of the Tarawa's mobile suit hangar using Mike's suit to support its weight. With her radio damaged, Mike physically opened the cockpit and spoke to her face to face, "Nice kill, Lucy!" He said with a boyish grin. "Finally got that damn sniper!"

Lucy's expression was distant, half hearted. Something else clearly had most of her attention. "I think the pilot bailed out. That Gelgoog might have recovered him." Mike followed the direction of her eyes and found what she was looking at; the wrecked hull of the Merrimac was still spinning in space, much of it falling into gravity to be incinerated in the Earth's upper atmosphere. "We got hurt, Mike."

He stared at the wreckage for a few moments, then nodded himself. "Yeah, we got hurt. Kinda pisses me off too."

Lucy pushed off the edge of her cockpit, drifting slowly into the open hangar doors of the ship. "This won't be the end of it. Let's get cracking with those repairs and start planning for the rematch."


	7. Chapter 6: Castle Keep

_"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." _   
--H.L. Mencken 

* * *

****

Chapter 6: Castle Keep

__

- February 6, UC 0083 -  
- 0851 (CST) -  
The searing heat from reentry finally started to level off, then after a few seconds started to decline, slowly at first and then more and more quickly. Ryo breathed a short sigh of relief, then breathed another one as his readings indicated his speed was dropping off dramatically. Any minute now they'd be back down to a fairly normal velocity where they could discard the ballute shields and drop in on the enemy from above. For now, though, he was stuck here, lying on his back on an inflated bowl of carbon fiber and ablative Kevlar, falling out of the sky with nothing beneath him but miles and miles of air and clouds. It was high noon in this part of the world, so at least they would have the sun directly over their heads when they dropped in right in top of the enemy. "I don't like this at all..." Ryo grumbled again, feeling his stomach twisting in a knot. "What's our position? Does anyone know if we're on target?"

"We're on target, Ryo." Naomi said from somewhere below him. "Give it another few minutes, we're almost at stall speed."

Brian raised the blast shield on his helmet, blocking out the shadow world of the psycommu interface to read his instrument panels. "GPS guidance says we're passing over... uhhh... the Pakistan border, coming up on the Hindu-Kush mountains."

"Right where we should be. At present angle of descent, we'll come down right over their heads." Naomi checked their entry vector one more time, but even as she did the intense heat suddenly vanished and her velocity took a nose dive. She felt a surge of gravity pushing down on her chest, peaking sharply to three and a half gees as the mobile suit decelerated. "Passing through hypersonic barrier. Velocity now... Mach eleven... 10.5, 10, Mach 9.5, Mach 8.5..."

Ryo's hands were shaking around his controls. "Is it supposed to slow like this? I mean... well should it?"

"The shield's been heated by re-entry. When the gas cools, the ballute gets softer and increases drag. We'll level off around terminal velocity in a few minutes." 

The radiation from the friction burn dropped out finally and Naomi's radio buzzed with a contact signal from the ground: "Hail Zaku, just and merciful."

"Hail Feddy, sick and maniacal." Naomi answered on the same frequency.

The pilot recognized her voice, but was slow to answer right away. "Good to see you again, Naomi. Recon indicates your carrier had some trouble with the launch."

"It's nothing Matsui can't handle. Pay attention to your job."

The pilot on the other end chuckled, apparently nostalgic for times gone by. "We've started bombardment of the enemy surface structures, but as expected, they've got the high-ground advantage and our strike team is pinned down just below the first ridge. Their mobile suits haven't launched yet so it's mainly Megellas and Dopps with a few gun and rocket emplacements on the top of the ridge."

Ryo whistled in amazement. "That's ALOT of firepower... I'm startin to think maybe Alice was right about this."

Brian shrugged absently. "I never said she wasn't. My question is, how is it that satellite surveillance never noticed an arsenal this big sitting out in plain sight?"

All this talk wasn't getting them anywhere. The battle was at hand, complaints aside it was time to go to work. "We're at altitude. Deploy primary chutes and discard ballute shields now." Naomi went first, fired the parachute on the thruster pack and let the shield catch the wind and float away from her. The parachute caught the Gundam and slowed it for just a few moments before the cables snapped, and Naomi deployed the second parachute immediately after, also snapping the cables after barely a few seconds. Every mobile suit in the strike team did exactly the same, and in moments all six GMs and four Gundams were in freefall, reduced to the booster packs attached to their chest plates and the sides of their legs. 

Naomi stowed her beam rifle onto her waist armor and shouldered the hyper bazooka, scanning the ground below already for a target. They were easily a hundred-thousand feet in the air now, but at their rate of descent the ground was rushing up extremely fast. She could just see the dark yellow dust of the mountain far below them, and squinting she could see the tiny pinpricks of light from explosions as the fighting raged all around the base. The mountain top where the facility was located was in a brilliant position; the only way to get to it was to cross a deep ravine, pass over the ridge on one side, then descend into another ravine before climbing up a steep incline to the top of the mountain where the base was situated. It was a natural fortress, complete with an outer wall and a moat, and probably alligators and a draw bridge too. "This is Wilson to all units, slight change of plan. GM teams, drop in on the enemy forces on the ridge just below the base. Gundam team, we'll set down on the slope just below them and try to bait their mobile suits."

Lieutenant Swanson groaned in anxiety, "See? There you go again, always doing things the hard way! Let's just drop in on top of them and rip the base a new asshole!"

"We don't know the layout of their base, idiot! You wanna touch down right in front of a damn firing squad?"

"Well... ummm..."

"You should think twice before you open your mouth! C'mon people, we've got a job to do, no more complaining!"

Ryo looked around on the panoramic monitor, taking in his first glimpses of the planet below him. He'd never seen a landscape like this, it went on forever into the distance, didn't curve up like the cylinders of a colony walls. Something about that made him feel terribly uncomfortable. "No wonder Alice hates this place!"

_  
_

- 0856 (CST) -  
Lucy took just a moment to wipe the sweat out of her eyes, then went back to working the hand crank to move the missile onto the hardpoint. The loading arm slid into position finally on the side of the fighter until she heard the satisfying click as the missile's safety lock engaged the hard point. Ensign Fokker floated over to the missile, checked that the lock was secure and then gave her the thumbs up. "Locked and loaded, Lieutenant! Now if we only had a pilot for this thing..."

"We'll figure it out." It was good that the core booster's cockpit had finally been replaced since the battle with the Delaz Fleet. Even Lucy would have refused to fly in a cockpit that had been the final resting place of a comrades lower intestines. A whole new cockpit solved the problem perfectly well. "What do you think, Chase? Will this thing really work inside an atmosphere?"

Chase bounded off the side of the fighter and planted his feet next to her. "Theoretically it should. The design's based on the old G-Fighter from White Base, but you never know with these mass-production jobs. Anyway, if it doesn't we've always got the two other units to work with."

"True..." Lucy really wasn't looking forward to it. All of the mechanics were busy repairing the mobile suits in the forward bays, that left no one available to load the Corsairs for combat even if they wanted to. "If nothing else it'll support a mobile suit in space. I just wish we could find a pilot..."

"We might have Astonage do it, or that new guy, Kelly."

Lucy shrugged and pushed off towards the door. "Push comes to shove, we'll just ask for volunteers."

Chase followed her out of the ship's aft deck and pushed his glasses back up on his nose. He was just on the verge of asking another question when their company increased by two; Lieutenant Ricardo Dyson and April Parsons came around the corner and took hold of a hand grip immediately behind them. "Lieutenant Matsui," Parsons called her attention and didn't wait for Lucy to turn around, "I just wanted to thank you again for repairing our mobile suits. We owe you big time for this."

"Don't mention it." The responsibility for the loss of the Merrimac rested squarely on their two shoulders and Lucy fully expected at least one of them to make it up to the Zeons. But she held her tongue, not wanting to offend their temporary guests with too harsh a criticism after only an hour on board her ship. "Our starboard engine is still running rough. We can't join the ground team until it's repaired, and if Chief Watson's estimates are correct we'll need at least a full day to make repairs. The zeeks know this, and we're positive they'll be back for more."

Lieutenant Dyson chuckled smugly. "I don't think so. We nailed three of their mobile suits, including that sniper they've been building their offensive around. I don't know who's commanding them, but they'll think twice before coming back for more..."

Lucy spun around in the corridor and grabbed him by the collar. "Why don't you pull your head out of your ass and take a wiff of reality! They destroyed one ship, severely damaged two others, damaged nearly all of our mobile suits and destroyed one of your GMs in the process! Don't make the mistake of thinking we just had a victory!" Dyson swallowed anxiously and Lucy calmed herself and continued on, "Those mobile suits that attacked us probably launched from a heavy cruiser, Tive class, maybe bigger. Three of them managed to get away, and that means at least three mobile suits on the Tive, plus whatever else they have in their support unit. They have more than enough firepower left to finish the job."

Dyson stayed quiet for a moment until she released his collar, then swallowed hard and decided to proceed more tactfully. "How can you tell that?"

"I recognized those mobile suits. MS-09P, Rickdom Sniper Customs. I went up against two of them back during the war, both were flying for Kicilia Zabi's Newtype Corp. And I know those people, they would NEVER put their entire attack force in just one wave unless they knew exactly what they were up against."

"Okay. Then...?"

Lucy turned back and grabbed the handgrip on the corridor, leaving Dyson and Parsons behind. "I don't intend to wait for them to attack us again. As soon as the repairs are finished, we're going after them with everything we've got. So you two better take some time to rest, you're gonna need it."

_  
_

- 0900 (CST) -  
Samir pointed the Magella-top cannon forty-five degrees into the air and fired off three rounds, one after another, over the tree line covering his MS-05 to rain down on the heads of the Magella formation firing down from the top of the ridge. One of the three shots landed a direct hit, and Samir could see a fireball rising off the top of the ridge as the ammunition and fuel detonated. He would have been proud of his work, but the other ten Magellas above them homed in on the source of his shots and began bombarding his position mercilessly. Explosions on top of explosions landed around his feet, forcing him to boost backwards to the cover of the foxhole he had just crawled out of only minutes before. "This is bullshit, we can't even move forward like this!"

The other seven Zakus of his attack force were in the same position, though most of them were firing out of foxholes with bazookas and not even bothering to move forward. "We're just the diversion, remember? Those Feddies are supposed to do most of the work today."

"Yeah? How come it's not working out like that?" Samir growled and switched back over to the radio line to the Gundam team. "We're gettin alittle toasted here, Baby Doll."

Naomi checked altitude one last time. The timing for his complaints could not have been any better. "Sit tight, we're engaging now. By the way, don't call me that." The base defenses had noticed them long before now, and now that they were close enough the sky suddenly filled with flak. Little puffs of black smoke went off all around them, framed by lines of tracer bullets from machine guns below and streaks of missiles plying in the sky for a target. Anything they got close enough took a hit from the head vulcans on the mobile suits, the rest was lost to the storm of anti-aircraft fire that filled the air around them.

Ryo felt the sweat started to sting his eyes. He couldn't even see the ground anymore, only a wall of smoke and fire from all the shells bursting in his path and the firehose lines of heavy machine guns streaming and crisscrossing all around him. He darted back and forth to try to avoid the worst of it, but he could still feel some shrapnel from the flak shells bouncing off the front of his shield. Three flak shells exploded in the air right in front of him and he felt all three impacts shake his suit one after another. "Lieutenant, this is nuts! We can't get in like this!"

"Calm down Izumi, we're right on target! Break formation and head for your L.Z.!" She was down to a thousand feet from the mountain when the computer fired the thruster packs. It slowed her descent to just below a complete stopat two hundred feet, then cut off and let the Gundam fall again. 

The GMs fired their thrusters half a mile away from her, dropping in over the heads of the tanks and artillery batteries firing at the old Zakus below them. The first suit down immediately aimed his 90mm GM rifle and fired a short sweeping burst across a line of battle tanks to destroying two of them at once. The other five opened fire as they descended, raining machinegun fire and head vulcans onto the tanks and gun emplacements before they could really react to them. Four of the tanks reversed engines and sped away from the GMs, firing as they fell back. One shell glanced off the lead suit's shield, and the six Federation suits finished them with one burst each.

Samir was the first to notice the change of scenery, and with a whoop of excitement called his troops forward. "We're in business! C'mon men, we're storming the castle!"

The base defenses responded quickly. The Gundams landed on a spot on the slope where their guns couldn't easily reach, but a team of Dom Tropens was already scouring over the dust to search them out. All three moved in a staggered formation scanning ahead of them, and all three failed to notice a single Gundam move up behind them, likewise hovering over the ground with its beam rifle aimed and ready. Brian fired a single blast from his beam rifle, clipping the reactor of the rear Dom, blasting it into pieces where it stood. The other two spun around startled and took aim, but stopping in place only made them easy pray to they other three Gundams crouched in concealment further down the slope. The first Dom took two direct hits from the two beam rifles while the third was hit in the back by Naomi's bazooka shell. All three collapsed flaming against the rocks while the Gundams continued their climb up the side of the mountain. "Look sharp! Remember, most of this base is underground!" Naomi fired her thrusters to bound up the side of the slope, Ryo and Eric followed suit. Brian stopped in place and knelt down below them, waiting to see what would happen once they landed before he would move on himself.

Eric's suit came down on a side of the mountain just a moment before it started moving. The rocks receded into the ground and then parted, revealing the three Gundams to a trio of unsuspecting Gouf Customs lined up shoulder to shoulder in the opening. Both Zeon and Federation suits fired at roughly the same time and then ducked around the corner for cover. The exchange left one Gouf on fire and Eric's Gundam with a section of his chest armor chopped to bits. "That was sloppy, Lieutenant." Naomi grumbled.

"I'm doing the best I can! Gimme a break, will you?!" Eric peaked around the corner into the hidden opening again, but another burst of fire shot the beam rifle from his hands before he could even fire. "Aw man...!

"Eric, you are such an idiot...!" Three energy beams struck down into the open hatchway, and half a second later two powerful explosions erupted from the opening in a geyser of flame. Naomi glanced back to see three GMs and Zakus boosting over the ravine to the side of the incline, with three more of each appearing on the top of the ridge behind them. "Excellent... Eric, go with the first GM team and move in right here! Ryo, Brian, we're king of the mountain!" The three GMs of the first team did just that, followed by three of the Mujahadeen Zakus, all darting into the underground tunnel riding fire from their verniers, leaving the others to scale the side of the mountain on their own.

Three of the Zakus and one of the GMs started moving up right away while two officer's units in desert camouflage landed on the slope just in front of Naomi. She recognized Samir's suit; the gigantic white rabbit painted on his shoulder armor was hard to miss even at night. "Let's get moving!" He said, glancing back for a moment. "There's alot of activity at the top of the peak! It looks like they're sending out more firepower..." As he spoke, four Dopp fighters banked out of the clouds and dove in on them with machineguns blazing. All four Gundams and two GMs fired back with beam weapons, the rest of the suits ducked down for cover from the attack. At that same moment, two Gouf customs and a Zaku Cannon peaked over the side of the slope and opened fire at once, catching one of the Zakus completely off guard and tearing it down where it stood. Samir and two Zakus both answered back with 180's, forcing the three defending suits to duck out of sight again. 

"This is kind of upsetting..." Ryo fired his thrusters and rose high over the slope, up over the tops of the mobile suits, up over the top of the mountain itself, drawing all the attention in the world right to himself as he took his first real look at their objective. There were four large gun emplacements in turret mountings guarded by a half dozen large missile launchers and heavy machine gun emplacements, all lined up defensively around three foxholes, each with armor plating over the front of them, all occupied by mobile suits. With the exception of the three suits dug in at the edge of the slope, nearly all of their defenses were setup quite a ways back from the edge, all poised in front of a pair of gigantic blast doors large enough for a battleship to fit through. Satisfied, he cut his thrusters and descended back to the slope just as the whole of the enemy guns lit the skies around him with heavy fire of every kind. By some miracle he managed to land again undamaged and took a long moment to slow his heartbeat again. "We have to take this slow! They're dug in pretty deep over at the top!"

"How many suits?" Naomi said, moving up next to him.

"Six to eight mobile suits, couldn't tell what type. That's including the three right up there in the trench." On cue, all three of the Zeon suits peaked over the side again and fired another mixed barrage. The GMs and Zakus answered them shot for shot, forcing the defenders to duck behind cover again. "This is getting annoying. We can't really get close to em without getting lit up!"

Naomi discarded the ammo clip on the bazooka and changed to the one on her right hip armor. "The best thing you can do for yourself is plan ahead..." She aimed the bazooka just over the top of the slope and fired two shells. Both soared about halfway up the slope before the heads of the shells burst open, spitting a massive cloud of tiny pellets over the top of the slope. All of them rained down over the heads of the three Zakus, and all of them exploded as soon as they were close enough. More than a hundred tiny explosions all went off at once, shredding through the armor of all three mobile suits and leaving the Zaku Cannon completely immobile.

"Nice!" Brian and Ryo both boosted straight up from the slope and rose up and over the top of the peak. Both of them drew beam sabers as they descended; Brian came down perfectly on one of the Goufs, cutting off one arm on the way down before stabbing it through the cockpit with his beam saber. Ryo wasn't so lucky, as the other Gouf Custom managed to draw its heat saber just in time and the two locked up as the Gundam came down on it. Ryo tried to push past it, but the Gouf's saber wouldn't budge. Somehow it managed to match him in strength no matter how hard he pushed it... until a blast from Naomi's beam rifle sliced through the suit just below the shoulders. 

The reactor explosion in the trench carved out a fairly large crater and sent Ryo's Gundam flying backwards, tumbling through the air before crashing against Brian's suit dozens of meters behind him. Naomi used the fireball as cover from the enemy guns and landed right in the middle of the smoldering crater. "I'll give you half of that one, Izumi."

Ryo heaved back up to his feet, careful not to expose too much of his head above the trench for enemy gunners to shoot it off. "God dammit, what have I told you about that?! You tryin to get me killed?!"

"I said it before and I'll say it again, you have to take out your targets, Lieutenant."

Ryo aimed his beam rifle straight for her cockpit, but Brian jumped between them before he could do anything dangerous. "Forget it, Ryo! We don't have time now!"

"Don't have time?! There's a bigger chance of getting hit by NAOMI than by enemy fire!"

"Ryo..."

"Who's side are you on anyway?! You tryin to kill me?!"

Samir's Zaku landed in the trench between them, his laughter rippling over the com line mockingly. "New pilot, huh Naomi?"

"He's still getting used to combat." She said cynically.

"Combat nothing! It's YOU he's getting used to!" Samir squatted in the trench and fired two shots into the air, letting them fall where they may among the enemy defenses. He heard the explosions in the distance, then smiled as a barrage of artillery exploded in all around the trench they now squatted in. One shell blasted up chunks of rock the size of cars and sent them raining down on top of his head. "What fun this is... Izumi was it? You better watch out, kid! This crazy bitch is infamous around the galaxy for her track record of friendly fire! Isn't that right, Baby Doll?"

"I'm actually known for my short temper." Naomi peaked over the side of the trench and counted enemy strengths. The enemy was in almost perfect position, even attacking from the air wouldn't be able to dig them out now. _Four mobile suits and at least as many bigass turrets and flak batteries... Shouldn't be TOO hard. _ "Stay focused, everyone! We've still got our work cut out for us!" She checked the ammo in the bazooka again; for more cluster bombs, a full pack of high explosives, plus two packs for the beam rifle on the back of her shield. "Oh, and Samir..."

"Yeah?"

"Don't call me that."

_  
_

- 0911 (CST) -  
Something about this made Chase feel incredibly guilty. Alice hadn't moved an inch since Brian left the ship, not to get up for something to eat or even so little as to scratch her nose. She just sat there, squeezing her palms together between her knees with her sightless gaze fixed on the table. Lucy had wondered if she was keeping her brother's chair warm, or maybe just saving a seat for him if and when he finally came back from the mission. But Chase's concerns were more than just wonderings; The Tarawa would be almost a day and a half late picking up the Gundam team and the surviving GMs from the operation. He couldn't even imagine how hard it must be for a little kid to be left alone on a ship full of strangers, especially in her unique circumstances.

At first she intended to leave Alice alone and give her some distance and breathing room, but before too long her conscience started to weigh her down. She looked so lonely there, hadn't even flinched in all this time... Chase made up his mind finally. At lunch call he loaded up a large tray from the chow line with a portion of just about everything on the menu, sat down across from Alice and set a few small dishes in front of her right where she was sure the kid could smell them. "You oughta eat something. It'll make you feel better." Alice didn't say anything, but she made a small move to sniff the food before resuming her original position. Chase was more worried for her than ever. "What's the matter? You sick?"

"No." 

"Well what's the matter?"

"Nothing." 

She seemed curt and standoffish in all her responses, which did nothing to make Chase feel better about this. "Well, I got you something if you're hungry. There's French Fries, some chips, fish sticks and some grilled carrots..."

"Is THAT what that is? I thought I smelled carrots." Alice sniffed the food again, but her hands still remained glued together, squashed between her knees under the table. She looked even smaller than ever.

Chase was trying not to be pushy, but he felt more pressure on himself than anyone else. "What's on your mind? Really?"

"Oh, nothing."

"No really, I wanna know. With Naomi and Eric gone, Mike and Lucy at alert stations, I've got no one else to talk to."

Alice looked up for a moment, failing eye contact but somehow engaging him more directly than she ever had before. "I was wondering, how do they get the cream filling into the middle of Twinkies?"

It took a few seconds for his brain to switch gears and actually contemplate the implications of the question, another few seconds to understand that there didn't seem to be any. "A machine does it, I guess."

"Like a... robot or something?"

"Could be. You've been sitting here thinking about that all morning?"

Alice shook her head, and for the first time released her hands to start picking at the food in front of her. "I was reading this book last night and the author said something like, the imagination is the cream filling of the mind, but knowledge is on the outside, it's what we see when we think of intelligence. A Twinkie without the cream filling isn't much of a Twinkie."

It was a long loop to try and follow, but with some effort Chase managed to stay with the thought without getting lost. "So, without imagination, intelligence is...?"

"A Twinkie without cream filling."

"Heh... that's alittle deep." Oddly enough, Chase suddenly felt a strong craving for Twinkies. "What's the point of that, though?"

"Well imagination is how the spirit powers the mind. So if you don't have an imagination, you don't really have a soul."

"Okay, that's alittle TOO deep." For the briefest instant, Chase had a flash back to the study groups she had so loathed on her college campus, people with nothing better to do than ponder the meaning of life or other profound questions while letting realistic concerns go straight out the window. Somehow it seemed different this time around; the study group consisted of a blind girl six years younger than him. "What book was this again?"

Alice hesitated to answer. "Who's near us right now?"

"What?"

"Is there anyone around who could be listening?"

The pilot's table was in the one quiet corner of the room and Chase glanced around just to be sure. "All clear. What's the big secret?"

Alice leaned forward all the same and whispered. "My dad owned a publishing company and some friends of his wrote a book with him."

"So your dad was a publisher?"

"Yeah. Him and his philosopher friends gathered research and stuff for the book, and my dad was the editor and publisher."

Chase was impressed, but the fact that they were whispering it made him curious. "What philosophers? Maybe I've read it somewhere?"

Alice listened again and whispered, "Jimba Ral ,Degwin Zabi, Zeon Zum Daikun..."

__

No way! Her Dad wrote the...! Chase looked around suddenly to make doubly sure no one else was listening. Why Alice was telling him this was beyond him right now. Either she meant it as some kind of confession or as a gesture of trust and good faith, or it was even possible that she was making it up to get attention somehow. Either way, it put Chase in a very delicate position. "So you're telling me your dad wrote books for the Zabi family?"

"Zabis...? No way! My dad owned the company, he really published it for himself."

"Yeah, but Degwin Zabi..."

"Degwin Zabi handled most of the historical references, but he wasn't really a central part of writing the book. Daikun and Ral organized the thesis, Dad did the editing, Genkai Sakhalin provided alot of the funding and organized public support for..."

"I know all the people who worked on it, Alice. I'm just trying to figure out..." Chase paused for a moment as two younger officers passed the table and waited until they were out of earshot. "You know, you shouldn't be reading books like that, especially at your age. There's alot of really dangerous ideas about the world, you could get yourself into trouble if you're not careful."

Alice grinned slightly. "That's almost the exact words of the book."

"Hm?"

"It's in the third chapter. 'The world is full of dangerous ideas. Young people could get into alot of trouble if they don't stop to think about what those ideas mean.'"

Chase couldn't help but feel like Alice was dancing around him, making this more difficult than it needed to be. "Just because you can find something useful in Mien Kamph doesn't mean..."

"... 'doesn't validate the larger idea. There's a little good in every bad idea and alittle bad in every good idea.'"

Now he was down another point, and suddenly he felt himself loosing an argument of surprisingly great importance. "It's just the principle. You should distance yourself from evil ideas that lead to evil things."

Alice raised a brow. "Did you ever actually read The Spacenoid Evolution?"

"Well no, but..."

"Then you've read the cliff notes?"

Lucy's face started burning. "No,"

"You've read a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book along with statistics and the main ideas and commentary by experts to summarize the chapters?"

__

How exactly am I loosing an argument on contemporary ethics to a thirteen-year-old war orphan? "No, but all the experts I know of describe it as a handbook for universal genocide."

Alice sighed, searched the table for the dish of carrots. "That's what they used to say about the Bible, the Koran, Darwin's theories, the Communist Manifesto, even the constitution of the Earth Federation. Just because you think you know alot doesn't make you smart. Your experts are Twinkies without cream filling, they have no taste."

__

Again with the Twinkies... Chase laughed at this, even despite the uncertain feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Okay, they're tasteless, I'll give you that. So what IS the book about then?"

Alice stuffed a fistful of carrots into her mouth and swallowed them. Somehow, Chase got the impression the kid was deliberately stalling him. "You ever just suck the filling out of a Twinkie without actually eating it?"

"Can't say that I have."

"Oldtypes have to eat the whole thing, but newtypes can get to the important part if they want to. And all real newtypes live in space. And everybody should be a newtype. That's all the book really says." 

The argument was dying, and Chase's appetite --as well as his curiosity-- was dying with it. "I got you, and if you kill all the oldtypes and there'd be nothing but newtypes, right?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "That's like saying, let's kill everyone who eat a lemon without turning a face. That's stupid, what kind of nut would publish a book like that? Then again, it DOES make a good slogan for any politician with a bullhorn."

He was just about to ask another question when Mike appeared next to the table with a cold look on his face. He seemed perplexed by the intensity of their conversation. "Chase, we've picked up a Minovsky concentration in the forward quadrant, seems to be shadowing our course and speed."

Chase's focus shifted in an heartbeat. "Is it them?"

"Probably. We can't pinpoint their exact location, but at least now we know where to look."

"Gotcha..." Chase stood up and left the tray on the table, well within reach of Alice's hands and pushed out from her chair. "Duty calls, Alice. I'll talk to you later."

"I know." Chase was just starting to leave when she added, "Chase, thanks for coming and talking to me like this. It was really nice of you."

"No problem. I'll bring you a Twinkie when I get back, okay?"

Seeing her chance, Alice blurted out, "Oh hey, could you get me some snew too?"

"Snew?"

"Yeah, snew."

Chase paused and looked around. "What's snew?"

"Nothing. What's snew with you?" She smiled like a wolf over the carcass of it's latest kill. Chase growled and skulked off, leaving Alice alone again at the table, timidly picking at a dish of carrots and fish sticks while she returned to the solitude of her own head and her thoughts. _I wonder if he's cute? He SOUNDS kinda cute..._

  
_- 0922 (CST) -  
_The Gundam and the three GMs behind him were all flattened against the side of the corridor, not daring to go much farther in lest they by cut down by the MMP-80s of the two Zaku Customs just around the corner. The Zeon suits had them pinned down with an almost constant barrage, shells eating away at the corner stone of the corridor between them every time they fired. Eric, poked his head around one more time to get a look and pulled back just as a burst of fire raked the rock wall next to his head. "Lieutenant Wilson, what's your position right now? Making any progress?"

Naomi ducked under her shield again, deflecting another flurry of rockets and machine guns from the three Dopp fighters strafing them from above. Ryo fired a long burst from his 90mm cannon as they pulled up away from him, catching two in his line of fire and sending them fighters crashing to the ground trailing smoke. Feeling the danger temporarily passed, Samir popped out of the trench and fired two more shells from his cannon, answered back by a dozen more from the artillery batteries up ahead of them. One lucky shot from a Zaku machine gun clipped off the fin on the top of his head. "Oh man...!"

"We're alittle pinned down here, Eric! What's happening on your end? Think you can get in behind them?"

"I think... maybe..." Eric peaked around the corner and fired a quick burst from his arm gatling, striking the chest of one of the Zakus before the other fired back. The damaged one collapsed to the ground spitting flames from within its chest armor as the other retreated farther into the passageway and reloaded its machine gun. Two GMs dashed around the corner and opened fire with beam guns, and one was immediately struck down by a shell from a Megella attack tank already poised to fire in the corridor behind the Zaku. The Megella got off another shot, but the GM pilot bellied out on the ground of the passage as Eric peaked around the corner and fired again with the arm gatling. Once again the Zaku collapsed under the spray of hot led, but this time one unlucky shell pierced the mobile suit's reactor core...

Brian felt the concussion in the ground beneath them, and poking his head over the top of the trench he saw a section of the ground ahead of them suddenly crumble and shrink inwards as if some invisible weight were crushing it in. "That moron... now's our chance! Get ready!" The ground collapsed a bit more, and then a burst of sand and rock exploded up from the center as the escaping gasses breached the surface. All three Gundams and both GMs rose up out of the trench and soared high up over the enemy defenders and immediately began raining beams and shells down on the gun turrets and the four mobile suits dug in next to them. Two of the gun turrets were blown to bits with a direct hit, the others smoldered but fell silent with a good strafing from the GM beam guns. Brian passed directly over the head of one of the Zaku Cannons and fired both of his shoulder cannons straight down on it. Both shells missed, but the explosion knocked the suit out of the trench and directly into the waiting sights of Samir and his Zaku team who immediately blasted it with machine guns. One GM landed in a trench next to a Zaku cannon; both suits drew their weapons but the GM was just a bit faster, managing to stab the Zeon through the head before it could bring its heat hawk down.

Ryo landed on top of one of the suits, and jammed the barrel of his beam rifle against the cockpit, pushing it down into the dirt. "Abandon your mobile suit and surrender! Don't throw your life away!"

The mobile suit reached for the machine gun at its side. Ryo fired a burst from his head vulcans, shredding the Zaku's head and sensors before he repeated, "Last warning, abandon the suit and surrender!"

The Zaku went limp under his rifle and then the pilot radioed back, "You wanna... like... move your rifle so I can open the cockpit?"

Ryo pulled the beam rifle back and the cockpit hatch sprang open. The pilot emerged slowly with his hands over his head, grinning at him cynically as he stood there. Immediately, Ryo was faced with one fairly perplexing problem: the pilot wore a Federation uniform. "Uh, Lieutenant...?"

Naomi had noticed the same of her own capture; the pilot standing in the hatch of his wrecked Zaku Cannon was wearing a Federal Forces Uniform with a Lieutenant J.G. rank insignia. She was confused beyond all hope, but now she decided it was best not to think about it. "Alrighty... Eric, what's your status? Everyone okay down there?"

The response was clouded by static but immediate. "We've had a cave in, one of the GMs is disabled... Hey Lieutenant, what the hell's going on? Half of these guys have Fed uniforms, the other half are Zeon or Colonial Guard!"

"That so? Um... we'll sort it all out later." And even now there was still work to be done. Standing here at the base of the gigantic metal doors, Naomi reminded herself that they hadn't even penetrated the enemy base yet. She turned to the one GM left in their group and pointed to the two captured prisoners, "Ensign, keep an eye on these two." She looked at the gigantic metal door cut into the side of the mountain again, suddenly feeling more anxious than ever. "The rest of you, let's see if we can't figure out what the hell's going on here."

  
_- 0940 (CST) -  
_The feeling of pressure squeezing her body still lingered in her sleep, but as she returned to consciousness it began to fade slowly. The heat was gone too, in fact she was cold now. _Something's wrong,_ she thought as her mind went back to operation. Her brain rose in activity, her heartbeat sped up, and yet with each passing second she felt more and more cold, _What's happening? Where am I?_ She opened her eyes at last and the world came into focus. She was staring up at a metal ceiling with a while light centered directly over her, beaming down at her from five specific points. It confused her for the longest time, lost to her disorientation until with a start she realized where she was.

She surged up in a panic, but a set of strong arms forced her back down on the table and patted her on the forehead. "Calm down, your leg's broken. Doctor Cass just set the bones."

At the mention of it, Vanessa immediately became aware of nearly unbearable agony in her left leg just below the knee and again at the angle. "Jesus, Deuce, I didn't wanna know!"

Duncan smiled but tried not to laugh. Even injured, he knew she would still probably punch him in the stomach for making fun. "A 90mm from that Gundam passed right between your legs. Four inches to the left and you wouldn't even HAVE a leg."

Vanessa sat up more slowly this time and Duncan helped her swing the leg, cast and all, over the side of the table. At this point she noticed her leg had some companions; her right arm was bandaged, as was her head and what felt like a few broke ribs in her lower chest. "What the hell happened? Did the new ejector pod work?"

"Barely. The explosion crushed it like an egg and smashed it in around you! We dislocated both of your hips tryin to get you out of the damn thing!"

__

So that's why my ass feels so funny... "Worked well enough, though."

Duncan nodded. "I guess, I mean you ARE still alive after all. The data recorder made it through intact, so Anaheim will know how to work the bugs out of it." He paused there for a long time, staring at her with something anyone could recognize plainly as relief. Vanessa understood it perfectly well; since before Duncan was old enough to walk she had been both his mentor and his senior team member in every type of activity, from learning how to walk to street races on a big-wheel to sneaking out at night for parties at friends houses. This experience reminded her once again just how important he was to her and she to him. "We could call the mission a partial success. The Tarawa can't descend, and we dropped one of their cruisers in the fight. Captain Sansky's loading the mobile suits for another attack..."

Vanessa's head pulsed, slowly at first, then more rapidly as the pressure started to mount. It was decidedly hostile, and closing in fast, not just one but many of them... a warship... "You better get to your suit, Deuce."

"Huh?"

"Enemies coming. You better get ready to fly."

"Who's coming? What are you talking ab..." He started to sense something to, but by now the radar officers had taken the hint and the Captain didn't wait to identify them before going to battle stations. The scramble horn wailed its message even in the infirmary and Duncan burst up for the door the moment it hit. "I'll nail that Gundam that wrecked your suit for you!"

"Don't bother, I want that one myself!" Vanessa shouted as the doors closed. She leaned back on the operating table and tried to relax, though in the end failing in her effort. "Careful out there, Duncan. Don't get careless like I was."


	8. Chapter 7: Cowboys and Indians

__

It's kind of ironic that so many authority figures don't command respect like they used to. That's what happens when you divorce actions from consequences, something liberal extremists are known to do. What's ironic is that everyone WANTS some respect, but we've all forgotten how to EARN it.  
-- Captain Noah Bright  


* * *

****

Chapter 7: Cowboys and Indians

__

- February 6, UC 0084 -  
- 0945 hours (CST) -  
All four main guns of Zeon heavy cruiser fired at once in a broadside towards the Federation ships, and once again their shots scattered among them nowhere close to a hit. Captain Shiden was sure to note that their gunners still couldn't get an accurate reading on them with the Minovsky jamming so thick; his failure to open fire clearly frustrated them beyond words. "Cruiser groups, fan out to either side and commence firing as soon as you have a definite target. Give them a four minute barrage, then shift positions!" Shiden waited for the two cruisers to move up ahead of the Tarawa before he made his own move, "Showtime, Lucy! Get underway!"

Lucy checked her systems one more time, making sure for the last time that the replacement leg was synchronized with the rest of the system, "Yosh... Let's go, Mike!"

"Launching!" Mike's mobile suit fired first, Lucy's was just a few seconds behind it and joined it in space. 

The catapult truck slid back into position for the next mobile suits; Chase stepped onto the track and squatted down while Lieutenant Dyson did the same in the opposite hangar. "By the way, Rico," Chase said absently, "About your uncle,"

"What about my uncle?"

"What's the deal with him and Naomi anyway? Any time they're in the same room together..."

"Long story. If you get me drunk enough I'll tell you sometime."

"Got some history huh? What'd he do, steal her teddy bear?"

Rico pushed the foot petals and launched into space. Chase followed suit, but made a note to keep an eye on him in the near future.

Captain Shiden made sure the last of their mobile suits were out of the ship before he made his next move. "Helm, come about to 1-8-0, minus fifteen! Full combat speed!"

Lieutenant Browning chuckled at his radar station. "Trying a boomerang sir?"

"Why not? We have the element of surprise, and besides we took out that sniper, what are you so worried about?"

Browning folded his arms behind his head and turned his attention back to his monitors. "Who's worried? Did I say I was worried?"

"That's the spirit!"

The Ensign Holland at the comm. station jumped out of his chair suddenly, "Captain, number three Core booster's powering up for launch!"

"Wha... The core booster? Who's piloting it?"

The young officer listened for a few moments, then raised a brow in surprise. "One of the mechanics. Uh... Sergeant Amonte, I think it was?"

"The new guy? Interesting. Does he know what he's doing?"

"Doubtful."

The Captain Shrugged absently, already guessing that Lucy had made prior arrangements for this and simply forgotten to till him about it. _Sometimes I wonder if this really IS a military outfit..._ "Alright, have the Hunley and the Memphis move forward and commence firing immediately."

Browning looked at his monitors in confusion. "Uhhhh... sir, we still don't have a clear visual on the enemy ship."

"Extrapolate from the Minovsky particle distribution and take your best guess. I only need the shooting, not the hits themselves!"

"Yes sir..."

"Only try not to make it obvious! These aren't amateurs here!"

Lieutenant Browning sighed in frustration and the comm. officer relayed all of the orders to the two cruiser captains in short summary, "Tarawa to all ships, probe firing procedures!"

The Zeon fleet was already making its own preparations. The Tivvay class cruiser Titov in the middle of the formation was broadcasting Minovsky particles like there was no tomorrow when the huge double doors at the bow of the ship opened. The two Rickdom Snipers launched first, joined after a few moments by the Zaku teams of the two supporting Musai cruisers alongside the ship. Duncan's ReGelg launched last of them all and moved in behind the formation, quieting his mind to get a sense of the enemy's movements. As soon as he stopped in space, a combined barrage from at least three double beam cannons cut through space, crossing nowhere near any of his warships but close enough to him to make him flinch. He calmed himself and tried again to feel out the enemy, but it was no use now. _Too many distractions to concentrate..._ He would have to do this the hard way. "Rickdom Squad, move forward and engage the enemy. Zaku teams, you're on backup in case any of them get past us!"

"Roger that. You sense anything Duncan?"

He tried one last time to feel the enemy out, and once again was interrupted by an entirely random burst of cannon fire from the warships off in the distance. Once again the barrage fell far wide of the Zeon vessels, but this time all three ships took aim and fired a return broadside. Just for a moment Duncan felt his teeth clattering. _Return fire? What the hell is the Captain thinking?_ As expected, the return barrage from the Federation vessels was far more accurate than before, with the gunners now tracing the shape of the Zeon barrage to guess the position of their ships. One beam crossed less than twenty over the bow of the Titov, and the battle cruisers four main guns answered back immediately. Duncan was beside himself at the display. "Captain Emeril, hold your fire! You're giving away your position!"

Emeril's face appeared on the monitor, grinning mischievously as always with the same grotesque smirk crossing his lips diagonally. "Your old man put you here to fly mobile suits, kid. You do your job, I'll do mine." The cruiser's guns fired another barrage, joined this time by a spread of missiles from the forward launchers.

"Captain, I'm warning you...!"

"What was that, kid? Couldn't hear you, your voice is breaking! Call back when you finish puberty, over and out!"

"You stupid son of a...!" At the same time he closed the radio link, three beams of energy crossed in front of his face. He tracked the source of the shots and grinned at the image; two GMs were closing in his attack group with beam guns drawn, just on the edge of scanner range. It amazed him that their aim had been so close from so far away. "Frankie, Gretta, gimme some cover fire! I'll handle these punks!" Both Rickdoms fell in behind him with MMP-80 machine guns in hand as Duncan's ReGelg turned towards the GMs. These were obviously the same two who'd survived the Merrimac, and something about cutting down the survivors of that doomed vessel made him feel charged with excitement.

For some reason, Lieutenant Dyson got that very impression as the ReGelg closed in. Initially he was nervous about having to fight this machine, but from its behavior it was maneuvering exactly like it was supposed to. "You know what to do, April. Just hold out for a few seconds."

"I can manage. We'll make it look convincing..." The two GMs split wide from each other as the ReGelg closed and both locked weapons at once. They waited until they were close enough and then both fired at the same time. Duncan sidestepped both beams at once, then dodged between and around the next shots before locking his own weapons on April's mobile suit. The beam rifle fired twice, both shots chomping off massive sections of her shield. April's beam gun fired again, joined with a burst from her head vulcans, but Duncan's next shot sliced cleanly through the left radiator in the chest. Her reactor shut down immediately, but the propellant tanks exploded under the armor and scattered the left side of the torso into space dust. The suit fell away, spinning randomly in space with flames jetting out from the side of the torso as the pilot opened the hatch and leapt out for dear life.

"Shit, April...!" Dyson fired three more quick blasts; the ReGelg made only the slightest movements, dodging the beams by no more than a half of meter in every case. "Damn, he's just playing with us!"

"Calm down, Rico! Break right and down when I tell ya!" It was wishful thinking on Chase's part that the enemy suits might not have noticed them approaching, but whether they noticed or not would be a moot point in exactly three seconds. Lucy and Mike's Gundams were keeping pace with the core booster and the Guncannon standing on its back until now, which gave him a certain sense of security he was now forced to part with. "Ready... break now!"

The GM dodged left under full thrust, and from that same direction the Zeon suits were met head-on by a hail of beam rifles. None of the shots were hits, they weren't supposed to be. It was nothing more than an announcement to the enemy of their arrival. Duncan, once again, took this exactly as we was meant to. "Screw this! Gretta, Frankie, finish that GM for me! I'll handle the Gundams!"

"Both of em? Deuce, don't get carried away just cause..."

"I'm not! I can handle those clowns, you two handle the other Feddies!"

Gretta sighed and moved away to engage Dyson. "Roger. Be careful, now..."

"Why does everyone keep telling me that?! Stop talking back to me and do your damn job!" Duncan moved forward to face the oncoming three enemies and took a quick headcount. The twin Gundams from before were there, along with the Guncannon kneeling on the back of a core booster like some bizarre magic carpet. "He learns fast," He laughed to himself, "He was too slow last time, so this time he hitches a ride." In all fairness, he decided, it was best to nail the Guncannon first and put the suit out of its misery. But the instant his weapons locked on, the core booster slammed its afterburners and the twin Gundams opened fire with beam rifles, arm gatlings and head vulcans in a wild spray, obviously a distraction but more than effective in doing its job. For just a few seconds he had to stop and raise his shield to cover himself, and in that few seconds the core booster and the Guncannon shot past him like a lightning bolt on the way to their real objective. It only took him half a second to realize he had just been baited. "Oh shit... Captain Emeril, you've got incoming mobile...!"

"Shut up, Kid! I'm sick and tired of all your whiney..." The core booster dove in through the defensive fire from the point defense guns, past one of the surprised Zakus guarding the ship, straight towards its underside to sink two cannon shells and a beam rifle into its underside gun turret. Emeril felt the ship girating under his feet and frowned at the damage report scrolling on the main screen. "Oh that... um... thanks for the warning, Marquis."

__

  
- 1012 hours, (CST) -  
The standoff continued, with the three Gundams and two Zakus all standing next to the blown-open blast doors leading into the main base facility on the top of the mountain. The tunnel on the other side was sloped deep down into the mountain for hundreds of meters, and thanks to Eric's unit under ground the only thing between them and their opponents were a pair of amphibious suits wielding beam cannons. It would not have been that hard to destroy the two Hygoggs and capture the facility, not with a full clip of high explosive bazooka shells and Brian's 300mm cannon working for them, but Naomi got the distinct impression it would make their job easier to merely hang out around the corner of the great battleship opening and pretend to put up a fight. She wondered seriously what the enemy was doing now; Samir's 180mm was already out of ammo and he was down to the last magazine on his machine gun. She looked at her watch boredly one more time and added some numbers together, sighing. "Guys, let's call it a day. They're obviously not launching it any time soon."

The two desert Zakus fired another burst into the tunnel and then ducked back around the corner as the mobile suits fired back with their beam cannons. Samir looked at his own watch and suddenly agreed. "Your man Swanson already cut off the main chamber from the rest of their base. There's no way they're just loading supplies. If they were gonna launch the ship, they would have done it by now."

Brian stood his mobile suit and nodded in agreement. "This really IS getting annoying. You know, we wouldn't even have this problem if the Tarawa had made it on time."

"Well they didn't, so deal with it." Naomi came to her own feet and changed packs on her bazooka to high explosive, but in the middle of the action suddenly changed her mind. "Hey Brian, you like westerns?"

"Western what?"

"Movies. You know, with the cowboys and Indians fighting on the hills and stuff?"

Brian searched every reference in his memory but could find nothing to relate to that. "When was America ever at war with India?"

"Oh, never mind..." She dropped her bazooka next to the tunnel entrance and drew one of her beam sabers. "CHARGE!" She shouted into the radio, then turned suddenly and slammed on the thruster power, flying into the cave in a mad bull rush. Brian reacted on pure instinct; his thrusters lifted him off the ground and he rushed out from concealment into the opening of the tunnel right behind her, firing his cannons blindly as he entered and praying for a miracle. 

Both shells hit the ground in front of them, blinding both with a blast of dust as. Naomi's Gundam rushed towards them in blue and white blur. Her beam saber flashed through the air, then flashed again behind the second suit; both Hygoggs hit the ground at roughly the same time, each sliced in half in a different axis to miss any and all vital components of the machine itself. "Too slow, Anderson. They're both mine."

"Jesus Christ, Lieutenant! You could've at least warned me!" Brian opened the visor in the interface helmet and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. "I think now I know how Izumi feels about..."

"Duck." She said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"DUCK!" Just for emphasis, Naomi fired a short burst from her vulcans straight over Brian's head. He took the hint and bellied out on the side of the slope just as four massive blasts from a beam cannon enflamed the air of the tunnel right where he had been standing. All four beams cut through the twisted metal of the blown-open launch doors at the top of the mountain, and in another moment a set of rockets at the bottom of the tunnel roared to life. "Is that enough warning for you, Anderson?"

Ryo and Samir both poked their heads into the tunnel in curiosity, and then both jerked away from the opening as the Zanzibar class cruiser shot out of the entrance like a one gigantic missile. The exhaust from the rocket boosters sent all of the suits sprawling on the dust on the top of the peak while their pilots struggled to control their pounding hearts. Ryo took a few moments to catch his breath and then groaned, "I guess they were launching it after all."

Samir looked through the cloud of smoke around them at the already faint light at the end of a rising column of smoke. "Yeah, it looks that way."

"I'd call this mission accomplished. The Trafalgar can take it from here."

Samir looked back into the tunnel, searching through the smoke for any sign of movement. "Baby Doll? You okay?"

Naomi answered with her beam rifle, cutting a wide channel in the smoke and burning off the antenna on the top of his head, shaving most of the paint and half an inch from the top armor. "This is your last warning! Stop calling me that or this beam rifle is going straight up your ass!"

"I'll try and remember that." The smoke started to clear after a few moments and Samir walked into the tunnel after her, finally stopping next to the two halved Hygoggs lying at her feet. The pilots were probably still alive, though clearly both of them lacked a means to leave their cockpits from the position of the wreckage. "How many kills is that for you, Naomi?"

"Twenty three, including these two." She knelt her suit down next to the wreckage and turned one of them over in its side, giving her hands just enough room to pry open the cockpit hatch. "Samir, time for you to do your thing. We'll move ahead and check out the base, and as soon as it's secure, it's all yours."

Samir chuckled. "Don't enjoy yourself TOO much Bab... er.. Naomi."

"I'll try not to, but remember I love my job." Naomi turned and started down into the smoke-filled tunnel while Ryo and Brian scrambled to follow along behind her. She waited until she was out of earshot of Samir's suit before she tapped both Gundams on the shoulder so their words could not be overheard. "I'd be surprised if anyone was left here. They probably evacuated everyone onto that Zanzibar before launch."

Ryo nodded in agreement. "That's why it took em so long to launch the damn thing."

"Exactly. Either way, it's out of our hands now. If we do find anyone, try to bring em in alive, otherwise this base is as good as captured now."

Brian looked around the tunnel as they descended deeper into the mountain. Even through the strange ghost world of the psycommu monitor, this place looked deserted, disused, long abandoned by whoever it was who had just left it. There was no sign that anyone had ever been here in the first place. "Why do I get the feeling this base was setup pretty recently?"

"I noticed that too. In fact, all their defenses looked like... well..."

"Makeshift." Ryo finished for her. "Those trenches were dug in a pretty big hurry. And the gun turrets... you know, none of them had dedicated ammo storage. Almost like they were set up within the past couple days."

"Yeah." By now, Naomi had added it all up, and she even scolded herself for not seeing it sooner. In hindsight she knew how obvious it was even from the beginning, so obvious that even a blind girl could—and had—seen all the holes in the mission background. _More bullshit from our beloved overlords. I'm sick of them jerking me around like this..._ "Anderson, look for a transmitter or something we can use to contact the Tarawa. Ryo, try to link up with Eric's team and look around for supplies. We need food, fuel and ammo in case the ship can't get to us right away."

"Roger, I'm on it." The three suits came to the bottom of the tunnel and Brian started into the large chamber around them, now empty except for a few badly disfigured Zaku tanks with long robotic arms, obviously used recently for repairs to the cruiser that had just launched. 

Brian broke contact to get started on his rounds, but Ryo paused just a bit out of curiosity. "Lieutenant Wilson, I just wanna clear something up so there's no misunderstanding. This is the second time you've popped an enemy suit right in front of me without so much as a warning and I really do not appreciate it. If it happens again, it will be the last time."

She was both surprised and amused by the comment. "Are you threatening me, Izumi?"

"That depends on you. If it happens again, it's a prophesy, otherwise it's just idle chit chat. You understand, right? This is more than just a pet peeve, it's my ass on the line..."

She chuckled mischievously, still not taking him seriously. "Look Izumi, I'm not in this to hunt down Zabis. I don't know about ideals or politics, I'm not interested in your opinions and I don't give a shit about your pet peeves, your ass, or the line it's sitting on. I suggest you stop whining like a little kid focus on your job from now on."

"Thanks for the tip, Baby Doll..."

In a split second flat her mood flew from playful to seething rage. "Lieutenant Izumi, I'm commander of this unit, I've given you your orders, and if you back-talk me just one more time, I'll drop a colony on your ass! Does that clear things up for you?"

Ryo sighed and decided to move on. "Yes, Ma'am." He turned without another word and proceeded on with the mission, all the while looking back over his shoulder. It was done now, it was out of his hands. It was only a matter of time, sooner or later one of them would end up dead. _I don't get it,_ he thought, leaving her behind in the main chamber, _What is it about her that pisses me off so much?_

"It's the fact that I'm a complete asshole, Izumi." She answered for him.

"That could be... wait a second!" He checked his com frequency shortly and made doubly sure; the channel wasn't open, and he didn't remember saying it out loud. He gave it just a moment's thought, then decided to put the incident behind him and forget it ever happened. "Must be Earth-sick or something. Now I'm hearing things."

__

  
- 1025 hours, (CST) -   
All three Zakus fired a desperate spread from their machine guns as a deterrent, hitting nothing and only serving to amuse Lucy as she closed in for the kill. As usual, she waited until she was close enough to the enemy suit, almost point blank range before she pulled the trigger and put the beam straight into the Zaku's cockpit. Mike helped himself to the next one in line, firing from far behind her and blasting the suit to bits with one well placed bazooka shell. There was nothing between them and the Musai now, so both of them slowed their approaches and Lucy took the first shot. Three quick blasts from her beam rifle ripped open the forward gun turrets, and Mike joined in with three rockets into the main hull. Explosions rocked the frame of the light cruiser as the rockets hit home and the cruiser began drifting in space, effectively disabled now and out of the fight. "Scratch one Musai...!" 

A single Rickdom and two Zakus darted out from behind the spinning cruiser and each fired a long burst from their machine guns. Lucy locked onto one of the Zakus, but this time when she pulled the trigger the pilot swerved to the side out of her line of fire. "Shit, these pilots are experienced, not your average rookies!"

Mike tossed away his bazooka and took his beam rifle in hand. "Now it's getting interesting... hey Chase, hurry up with that Tivvay, will ya?"

"I'm trying, but that bigass Gelgoog is really doggin us!" The core booster came around again several miles behind the cruiser, flying well ahead of the ReGelg's beam rifle as it turned for another attack run. Kelly made sure to be patient with the fighter, feeling the extra weight of the Guncannon on his back and the sluggish feeling of the controls. "We'll be coming up the rear this time, Fokker. You ready?"

The engine lights of the heavy cruiser were glowing fiercely in front of them as the fighter straightened out. It wouldn't take much to disable the ship, just one well placed cannon blast or missile up the tailpipe would do the trick. Then again, with the ReGelg on their tail they wouldn't have much of a window to aim before it gave them much the same treatment. "Kelly, let's separate and go at it one at a time!"

Kelly did a double take at his radio. "Are you nuts?! If I leave you here, the big Gelgoog will just...!"

"You've got missiles, I'll draw his fire until you can get the shot off!"

"What if he goes for ME first?"

"Then I'll take the shot myself! C'mon, Kelly, I thought you techies were proud of your machines!"

The comment struck Kelly where it hurt, and all at once his decision was made. "We'll split once we get close. He can't shoot BOTH of us down... at least, I don't think he can..."

The Titov's point defense guns opened fire as the core booster came around again; Kelly nearly broke his arms trying to maneuver the heavily laden fighter to avoid their guns. The ReGelg was closing in from behind them now. They were almost there… "Go, Chase!" Kelly shouted out.

Chase released the locks and pushed off from the fighter's back. Duncan watched them split up and paused in a split second of indecision. _Aw man... just get one of em..._. He passed the Guncannon at full throttle and kept after the core booster, lined up a shot on his beam rifle and fired several quick blasts from his beam rifle. His fourth shot clipped the core booster's right engine, knocking the craft into a spin as it passed over the Titov's bridge. "Gotcha! How do you like tha..."

Both shells from the Guncannon scored a direct hit on the softest spot on the ReGelg's armor. The explosion ripped open the back of his mobile suit, completely destroying his vernier pack and knocking the ReGelg aside like an insect in a hurricane. Duncan felt his controls go limp, and through the flickering, static-filled monitors he watched impotently as the Guncannon rushed overhead and fired its cannons again and again into the rear of the heavy cruiser. All of them hit their mark; the starboard side of the ship's engine hull split like a pea pod and spat an enormous geyser of flame into space. Captain Emeril came up over the radio almost immediately, "Dammit! Marquis, we've lost our starboard engines! What the hell are you doing out there?!"

Two Zakus from the cruiser groups came into range with machineguns blazing. The Guncannon broke off from the cruiser to fight them off, but the damage to the Titov had already been done. Duncan tried powering up his suit again, but there was no response from the system. The explosion had cut the fuel lines to his reactor and he was completely out of power, no hope of a restart. "Well this is just wonderful! Damn, I wouldn't be in this position of Vanessa was still…" he sensed it before he saw it: a twin beam reached out from the empty space directly ahead of them, crossing just over the bow of one of the Musai cruisers alongside of the Titov. Duncan squeezed his controls tighter than ever and opened a radio line with any power he had left. "Gorbachev, Do NOT return fire! You wanna get killed?!" All three of the Musai's forward guns and missile launchers fired back without missing a beat, a full barrage sent right back to the source of the enemy fire. Their shots missed their mark by a hundred meters, but now the Tarawa's gunners had a definite target. Both of the mega particle cannons adjusted their aim slightly, charged up and opened fire. 

Duncan watched the beams like a field goal, lancing out from that tiny spec in the distance to strike their target dead on. Both cannons scored direct hits, one through the Musai's second gun turret and the other through the main bridge. The ship burned in space for a few moments until its fuel tanks exploded, swallowing more than half of it in blinding fireball. He watched this with the same detachment, until without warning something flash boiled in his heart and drove him into a blinding rage. "This is not fair! We've been training for this since the end of the war, I've given up everything for this battle, and these morons just pop in out of nowhere and we can't even scratch em! THIS IS NOT FA... huh?" He sensed her at the same time she sensed him, a shining light in the distance right where the enemy beam cannons had fired from. It was like a spotlight, singling him out from the rest of the world, alone in the universe with no one else but him and... "Th-That's impossible! I sank the Merrimac, how could she...?! What the hell is going on?!"

Vanessa felt it at the same time, but to her it felt much more familiar. "Weird. That feels like... that's just like the Elmeth pilot, only so much more... oh man, Deuce wasn't exaggerating!"

One of the Zakus from the cruiser group moved up alongside the ReGelg, grabbing it by one arm to drag it back to the Titov's MS bay as it retreated. Still, Duncan's attention was focused on that little light shining on him from the distance. It grew brighter as he looked at it, expanded towards him like some gigantic object coming to crash into him. As it got closer he could make out some details, variations in color, dark spots, light spots, shapes... there was something in the middle of it, a human form suspended in the air with one arm stretched towards him. He recognized her from somewhere, there was something about her that sent a strange feeling spiraling up and down his spine. "It really IS you... Alicia?" He said aloud, somehow expecting she could hear him.

Alice moved carefully on down the corridor towards the end of the bulkhead, reaching a spot as far forward of the ship as she could get. Something strange had appeared in her sightless world, a strange object glowing to her, calling her to it like a moth to a flame. Duncan was the only thing she could see in the world, a single bright object in a void so empty even darkness couldn't fill it. His question came to her in an echo, and her answer returned to him the same way, "Just who are you anyway? Why do you keep calling me like this?"

"Calling YOU? What are you talking about? You're the one who..." At this point he noticed the doors of the MS bay closing in front of him. It was strange, he hadn't even noticed the others had brought him in. He'd been so focused on her that the rest of the world had vanished to him. With the shift in concentration he pulled away from her, and just like that her image disappeared from his mind and he from hers.

Captain Shiden had seen the explosion of the Musai from the hundred mile distance between them, and the heat signature from the Titov's engines indicated the Zeeks were running away with their tails between their legs. He couldn't have wished for a more satisfying payback for the Merrimac. "Mr. Holland, any word from the front?"

The comm. officer turned around with a satisfied grin. "Observation unit reports one enemy cruiser and six mobile suits destroyed, two cruisers heavily damaged and retreating. Gundam 802 and 803 are in pursuit."

"Negative, that'll be enough for one day. Signal all ships to return to base immediately." The signal flares launched ahead of them a few moments later, the visual cue for the Gundams to pack it in and pick up any lost comrades or Zeon prisoners. It was all done now, and the time had come to move on to more important issues. "Garcia, plot a course for de-orbiting maneuvers as soon as the mobile suits are all recovered. Our little trip to Earth has been delayed long enough."

The helmsman started plotting vectors for entry, but then thought twice about it. "You want me to plot a window that takes us to the drop zone?"

"Don't bother, the fighting will be over by then. Just put us somewhere in the continent and we'll move in from there."

"You got it, Captain."

__

  
- 1821 hours (CST) -   
It always took the same amount of time for Gwen to answer her calls, twenty-eight seconds right on the nose. Any longer and it was to be assumed she wasn't answering at all, and of course Naomi would immediately hang up the phone. This time she counted off with anticipation, not sure whether or not she even wanted to talk to her now but knowing perfectly well how much she needed to. Twenty-five... twenty-six... twenty-seven... twenty-eight...

The monitor clicked on, not showing anything at first but the far wall and a Zeon flag, but after a few moments a face rose from the bottom of the frame and stared into the screen squinty eyed. "Wha... who is it?" She said yawning.

"Were you asleep? Didn't mean to wake you up..."

Gwen suddenly surged into consciousness and rubbed her eyes back into focus. "Oh... uh... hey Naomi. What's going on?"

She'd seen that look before. It was no ordinary cat-nap. "You've been drinking again, haven't you?"

"Titans'll do that to you. Anyway, what's up? I know you didn't call me worried about my liver."

"No shit, I'll be happier when you're dead. This is sort of a business call."

"Intelligence?"

"Yeah."

Gwen straightened up and rubbed her eyes again with her palms. "Fine, what's the question?"

"Do you or any other Zeon guerillas in the Earth sphere have any presence on Earth?"

"Marquis doesn't, but I know a few groups that do. Why?"

Naomi leaned forward a bit. "Which groups, exactly?"

Gwen thought for a moment through the throbbing hangover. "I don't know where they are exactly. There's the Stingray Fleet in the Pacific, Captain Leena's platoon in Alaska, Midnight Fenrir units in Africa..."

"Anything in Afghanistan?"

Gwen blinked slowly. "Afghanistan? Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Is that a no?"

She chuckled on the monitor, obviously knowing something Naomi didn't. "The only base the Zeon ever DID have there was demolished by the Trojan Horse right before Operation Odessa. We didn't have a presence in Afghanistan DURING the war, let alone four years later! With all the guerilla activity around there, you wouldn't last six months before somebody raided you."

"So there's nothing there? Not even... say... the Hindu-Kush mountains?"

"Not that I know of, and I know most of them."

Naomi leaned forward again and leaned on the wall next to the monitor. "Gwen, if you're lying to me..."

"Why would I lie to you? You can always tell anyway."

That much was true, and with the business part settled it was time for one or two personal issues. "Anna's birthday is next week."

"No, really?" Larson said disdainfully. "Look, I may be the one person in the world you hate the most in the universe but I'm not stupid and I'm not heartless... not completely anyway... I mean, I do care about people, you know that."

"Of course you do. Just not to me or my family or anyone else you've screwed over in your glamorous way."

"Naomi, please..."

"You know, I can't even figure out why I keep talking to you. You betrayed all of us, you left us to die like animals while you ran away and lived the high life in some fancy space colony. By all rights I should be fabricating evidence as a reason to come after you with a squad."

Gwen reached for the control panel and just managed to stop herself from cutting the feed. "Okay... okay..." she took a few breaths to keep from loosing her temper."There isn't anything I could say or do to redeem myself, is there?"

Naomi shook her head. "Not since you blew off Anna's funeral." 

"We were at war. My unit was fighting in the Loum Cam..."

"Loum Campaign my ass, you still could've been there. We both know the fighting was over by the time you heard about it."

Gwen tried to keep the tears out of her eyes, not wanting to show weakness in front of her. "I'll keep trying."

"And I'll keep telling you to go to hell."

"Then that's how it'll be. Take care, Naomi..."

"Eat shit and die, Gwen Larson!" Naomi slammed down the handset and the monitor snapped off and closed the channel. She waited a few more moments to call up the Tarawa, but out the corner of her eye noticed Samir leaning in the doorway, obviously and non-discretely eaves dropping. "What would you do, Sam?"

Samir fished through his pocket for a box of cigarettes. "I'd follow the Koran."

"I'm not religious."

"I don't blame you. If I'd been through half the shit you've experienced, I'd stop believing in miracles myself. Then again, you ARE still alive, maybe there's something else to it?"

Naomi chuckled at him. "I've never felt the touch of God. Death, yeah, but never God. The only reason I'm alive is because of an old man named Himura Fuchida and the fact that I'm so damn stubborn."

"Amen to that."

The signal finally connected and Ensign Holland's face appeared through a haze of static. "This is Tarawa, we're receiving you."

"801 reporting. Operation successful, we've taken the base. Request ETA on extraction."

"We're just beginning reentry maneuvers over the Arabian Peninsula. We'll rendezvous at the following coordinates in about seven hours, over and out."

"Roger that." The screen went dark, and Naomi wrote the coordinates on the back of her hand with her pen. "Well Samir, it's been fun."

"Like the good old days. Glad to see we've both moved on to bigger and better things over the years."

Naomi chuckled again. "Bigger things? You went from a Galbadly to a Zaku-I and call it an improvement?"

"Well I'm with a greater cause now. This little corner of the world is a lot safer with us controlling it."

Naomi rolled her eyes and headed out of the comm. room. "You know, the Titans say the same thing about the colonies. Maybe we should've stuck to Galbaldys?"

Samir lit his cigarette as she left, staring at the wall and letting her words sink in. "You could just be right about that."


	9. Chapter 8: Buried Treasure

Conservative_, (n)_ A statesman who is enamored by existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. Conservatives are best well known for their perpetual cruelty and cynicism, much the same way Liberals are known for their infinite stupidity and repeated flights of fancy.  
-- The Devil's Dictionary, 3rd Edition.

* * *

****

Chapter 8: Buried Treasure

_- February 6, UC 0084 -  
- 1045 hours (CST) -_  
A re-entry maneuver was hardly a spectacular thing for the Tarawa's crew, but it happened so rarely that everyone had a sense of excitement over the occurrence. Ship's helmsman, Erin Garcia, had done this maneuver three times before, and this time around she was more confident with it than she had ever been. Captain Shiden didn't even need to be on the bridge for such an otherwise simple operation, but for the sake of the younger officers he rode out the entire procedure from the main bridge. 

Lucy and Mike watched proceedings from the secondary bridge/fire control center, marveling at the screen images from the external cameras as the carrier road through the inferno of re-entry without so much as a heavy bump. They all felt the onset of gravity all over the ship, and the engineering officers secured the gravity block and locked it into place with the crew quarters and mess hall on the bottom. Chase was reading in his room when he felt the deck buck and lock into place beneath him, took a note that the gravity block had stopped and went back to his book. Three seconds later he heard a sound of a different nature, the sound of someone pounding on his door and screaming on the other side. Curious, he put the book down on the desk and walked carefully across the gently rocking deck to open it...

Alice flung herself into the room and into his arms as soon as he did, shouting and hollering close to hysteria, "You gotta help me! Something's wrong with the ship and the deck stopped spinning and we're all gonna crash and we're gonna die and I can't find my room and I HAVE TO PEE...!"

"Whoa, whoa slow down a minute! One thing at a time!" He steadied himself on the deck as the ship swayed in the upper atmosphere like a boat in choppy waters. He didn't blame her for being scared, and as before in the mess hall he felt guilty for not doing something to help her sooner. "Okay... uh... what do you want me to do?"

Alice took a few breaths to calm herself down. "Um... Can I use your bathroom?"

"Sure." He stood there and waited for her to move there on his own, but she just stood there and stared at his chest until he finally remembered himself, "Oh, that's right. It's this way." He kept his balance and supported hers, leading her all the way to the door and putting her hand on the light switch. "The layout's the same as your room. You need some... some help or something?"

"No, I can take it from here." She closed the door behind her disappeared inside, then emerged again not two seconds later. "Never mind, it went away."

"Oh. Well, glad I could help then..." 

He didn't get more than half a step away from the door before she flung herself into his arms again, this time not letting go. "Can I stay here? This feels really funny and I'm really really scared."

"No problem, you can stay." He managed to peel her away from him just a bit, but she clung to his arm like a life jacket and followed him around the room wherever he went. Eventually he sat down on the bed again and went back to his book, trying not to notice the trembling little girl clinging to him like some frightened animal. He couldn't keep his attention on the text for more than a few seconds at a time, and as the ship started to shake more violently he decided to make conversation. "So... where are you from again?"

"Riah." She said, her voice catching in her throat.

"Side 6, huh? Nice place?"

"Sounded nice. I never got to see it."

"Oh..." He knew he would regret asking, but his curiosity was peaked now. "Were you... well, were you born blind or did you...?"

"G-3 gas. It was only brief exposure, but it destroyed all the blood vessels in my face. They got to me in time to keep me from being all disfigured and stuff, but they couldn't save my eyes."

The ship started shaking more than ever at peak deceleration, but Chase felt her relaxing a bit despite it all. He knew he just needed to keep her talking. "So how did you like it on Riah? I bet you've got a dozen boyfriends waiting for you..."

"I've lived on the Merrimac since the end of the war. And besides, boys don't like me anyway."

"Why not?"

"Nobody likes blind kids. One girl used to make fun of me because she thought I was faking it, and most boys in my class treated me like I was retarded or something. They all kept acting all surprised cause I was getting better grades than they were in all the math classes."

"So you went to a regular school?"

"That's all they have on Libot, these days. My brother scanned all the books and printed them on textured paper so I could read them, and then he spent hours every day helping me study so I wouldn't fall behind."

He tried to picture what that might have been like, seeing the new student in class for the first time and realizing that the new student couldn't see him. Even now he wondered how in the world she pulled it off, but obviously she'd not only succeeded but somehow found a way to excel. That is, of course, unless she was making it up. "Wasn't there anybody there you liked?"

"Not really. A lot people were nice to me and all, but I never met anyone at Side 6 who I'd really trust. And when you can't see, trust is really important." The ship lurched heavily, more than Chase would have expected from a routine maneuver. The deck started to tilt to one side, a little bit at first but then more and more as time went on. The ship's alarm siren went off; Alice suddenly wished she'd used the bathroom when she had a chance. "This is it, we're gonna die!"

"Relax, Garcia's just turning the ship."

"What if she's not?! What if one of the wing's broke off?! What if there's a hole in the ship?! Chase, this is really bad..."

Captain Shiden exploded over the loud speaker, he voice powerful yet overly relaxed considering the situation. "Attention all decks, I apologize for the rough ride. Seems we've overestimated the reliability of Federation weather bulletins and we're gonna have to avoid rather nasty sand storm over Saudi Arabia. All decks secure for mild atmospheric maneuvers for the next twelve minutes, then resume normal operations."

Chase breathed a sigh of relief and put his arm around Alice's shoulders. "See, kid? It's nothing big, just a little sand and wind. We're gonna be fine."

Alice hugged him tighter and curled up into ball at his side. "Just in case, I want you to do me a big favor."

"What?"

"I want you to kiss me."

It took him more than half a minute for the words to make it from his ears to his brain. "You want me to what?"

"I've never been kissed before and I don't wanna die a... a... kissing-virgin!"

__

The ONE DAY I run out of tranquilizers... "Get over yourself, we're gonna be fine!"

"But what if...!"

"No buts, nothing's gonna happen! I've been through this already, it's always rough like this!"

"I just... oh." She let go of his arm and shrank away from him now, curling up on the bed in a little ball, no longer trembling. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"Huh?"

"I just thought... well I just thought maybe you weren't like all the others who made fun of me."

Any other day he might have noticed she was just toying with him, but with the ship bucking beneath them and the alarms wailing in the background, his immediate concern was digging himself out of what felt like a moral grave his conscience had him in. "Hey that's not it, it's just that... well... I'm worried your brother's gonna kick my ass for this. And I'd never hear the end of this from Lucy..."

"But you would do it if you knew they'd never find out, right?"

It was a deadly trap, and little by little it started to feel like one. "I... sure, I guess I, maybe would. You know, if I was younger..."

"So what's the problem? Am I... I'm too ugly or something?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say..." Alice was tired of playing. She followed the sound of his voice when she moved, springing up from where she was coiled in the mattress and flung herself toward him again, seeking out his face with a luck guess and locking her lips against his in a fit of childish passion. Nothing else in the world had ever caught Chase Fokker so completely off guard, and after a few seconds to clear his initial shock he pushed her away and looked at her in shock. "Geez, kid! What the hell was that?!"

"Spur of the moment. I couldn't help myself."

"Well help yourself! Shit!"

Alice pushed forward again, knocking him off the bed as the ship turned and sending them both rolling on the floor. "Chase, don't you wanna be my boyfriend?"

"No! Get off me!" He tried to pull away, but every time he did she pulled him right back in with a surprisingly strong grip of her arms.

The ship's flight evened out finally and the alarms cut off, and right then, in that most compromising position in the corner of the room, Chase's door slid open to the two officers in full normal suits. "Hey Fokker, we're coming out of reentry and the Captain wants..." Lucy and Mike both caste their eyes on the corner of the room, seeing Ensign Fokker sprawled out on his back in an extremely compromising position with Brian's kid sister. They were both completely flabbergasted at the sight of it, but the two of them needed only a few seconds to put the pieces together and figure out exactly what was going on. At that point, Lucy exploded into laughter and Mike whistled at them.

The expression on his face was one of pure desperation. "Guy's I'm getting molested over here...!"

Mike took a deep breath and tried to keep from laughing. "What can I say, Chase? You've been chosen, you're just gonna have to live with it."

Chase growled in frustration. They seemed to find all this hilarious, but the situation was quickly spiraling out of his control. "Mike, seriously...!"

Alice took all this as encouragement and hugged him even tighter, then pulled away and made for the door. "Call me, Chase! You know where to find me!"

She slipped past the two laughing officers, leaving Chase dumbfounded in the corner as Lucy walked up and knelt down in front of him. "Poor thing." She said sadly. "It must be so difficult."

Chase nodded strongly. "Yeah. It's because she feels out of place here, she's trying to latch onto somebody to fit in better or something."

"Exactly."

"It's a weird thing to, because I wanna tell her to get a grip, but I don't want to hurt her feelings. You know what I'm sayin?"

"You're absolutely right, Chase..." Lucy laughed and headed towards the door. "...But I was talking about you."

_  
- 1150 hours (EST) -  
_Even with its previous occupants, the abandoned mine had never been this active before. More than a dozen MS-04s and MS-05Bs of the Mujahadeen had already moved into the base, marching alongside jeeps, tanks, half-track APCs and trucks carrying men and equipment into the underground facility to secure it for their own use. Some of the men on the ground guided mobile suits into positions in the abandoned hangars, while a few others worked to clear the collapsed tunnel system from the hangars to the underground exit. The dozen or more captured men were placed in one of the holding cells below while the living quarters were cleared out for the new soldiers to claim as their own. 

Naomi had to fight the urge to join in with the work here, working again with these people she'd called her friends years ago before the Federation, before Project N recruited her for their outlandish experiments. She marched her Gundam through the frenzied scramble of workers and soldiers pouring into the base by the hundreds, storming about left and right, dashing off towards their tasks until she reached the lowest bowels of the mine where Samir was waiting for her. The hollowed out chamber on the bottom level was the most impressive of all; it was a huge cavern, easily a kilometer or two from end to end. She entered through one of many large tunnel openings connected to a network of mining tunnels where ores and materials were drawn from and looked around as she walked. The biggest feature in sightr was a gigantic smelting furnace and processing plant in one isolated corner of the cavern, adjacent to a field of robotics and machinery that would shame most modern factories. The rock floor of the cave was divided lengthwise by a wide stream, flowing from a small hollow in one wall into a small lake disappearing under the opposite side. Everything about this looked eerily familiar to her... She stopped the Gundam and crouched on the ground next to the other mobile suits, directly between Samir's Zaku and the three Gundams. As soon as she opened her cockpit, Lieutenant Swanson shouted up to her, "Wilson, that foundry's got ZEEK written all over it!"

Naomi pulled a wince cable from the frame of the cockpit, lowered herself to their level to talk to then without shouting. "This place kinda reminds me of something..."

Eric nodded in agreement. "The mobile suit factory at Jaburo." 

"Yeah, exactly! They're using the subterranean waterways to cool the metal, vent exhausts through a shaft that leads a few miles from here so you can't trace it..."

"Over here, Naomi." Samir shouted over to them from behind his mobile suit, standing next to a guard rail overlooking a very deep, square-cut pit big enough to fit a battleship into it. "This is what I wanted you all to see."

All four Federation pilots walked up alongside him and looked down into it, squinting through the harsh glare of a set of floodlights at the spread below them. A total of fourteen mobile suits were laid out head-to-toe on trailers along the bottom of the pit, each in various states of disassembly the further the trailers got to the end and parts of the very last unit were in the process of being stowed into cargo containers for shipping. The machines were crude, boxy designs with simple looking frames and even simpler looking parts going into them. They looked like combat machines, but only with a little imagination, and none of them had any markings of any kind save for a dark green paint over the shoulders and torso and a unit number painted on the chest.

All of them looked up at Samir, but at a glance they saw his face saturated with suspicion. "Imagine my surprise when we came into this chamber and found these things lying around. We agreed to help you all capture this place, but you never said a word about new models down here."

Naomi shrugged absently. "This is all news to me, buddy. I gave you all the information Jaburo gave me. So what if 98% of it turned out to be complete bullshit?"

Samir nodded. He'd already figured as much himself, and that left them on equal and perilous ground. "So now what?"

"Let's start with what we DO know."

"Okay." Samir glanced at Ryo, catching him relatively unaware for a moment. 

"Well... the computer banks are empty, they scrubbed em before they left. Trouble is they left the software drivers intact, so it's just a simple matter of restoring the files in the mainframe boot memory. I could have it done in a couple of hours, piece a cake."

Naomi nodded and moved on to Brian. "Did you check out the adjacent chamber?"

"Yeah, there's a launch track tunneled into the side of the mountain. There's not much left, looks like the workers demolished everything when they Zanzibar launched, but from the looks of things those launch tracks have seen a lot of use. I'd guess at least ten launches in the past couple weeks."

Naomi nodded again and moved onto Eric, who looked surprisingly confident with his own work. "I don't suppose you managed to get some information out of those pilots we captured?"

Eric smiled triumphantly. "I actually did good this time. Seems our little mercenaries work for a gang called the Anti-Earth Union Group. That's about all I could get out of him, that and the fact that he comes from Side 4."

Every one of them suddenly exchanged a worried glance as the implications fell into place. Brian started thinking out loud. "You know, we recovered the bodies from those mobile suits and tanks we nailed. Most of those guys were wearing Colonial Defense Force uniforms. The only Zeeks we found were registered as AWOL with the Republic..."

"Something pretty big was gonna happen here." Ryo was the first to say what all of them were thinking, "You think another rebellion or guerilla campaign?"

They all stood in silence for a few moments, then turned and looked back at the mobile suits laid out below them. "Well I'll say this much," Samir broke the silence after a moment, "If my mechanics are right, and they usually are at a glance, this aint exactly prime hardware we're looking at. On the one hand, they've got good mobility, decent weapons, good thrust ratio and a high center of gravity to make maneuvering easier. On the other hand the main thrusters are shit. It's got a garbage reactor, less armor than a snow-blower, a non-welded frame, and as for the sensor package... all it's got are the forward-looking opticals and six digital cameras mounted on the head. And no backup cameras either."

Eric chuckled at the notion. "So it has more blind spots than Brian's sister in a dark room."

Brian had the same thought at the exact same time, but made a mental note to chew Swanson out for the comment. "What kind of performance are we looking at? GM level?"

Samir laughed at the suggestion. "Yeah, right. Think of a Zaku, only slower but with a faster turn radius."

"Yuck." Naomi turned away from the pit and started back towards her Gundam. "Do me a favor, would you Samir?"

"What?"

"Don't repair any of the defenses topside and keep it low key for a couple weeks with surface activity. If anyone asks, we caved the entrance and the inner chambers after we pulled out."

Samir's lips curled into a ghost of a smile. "And here I was gonna try and work out a deal with the Feddies..."

"...IF you promise to destroy these machines and the rest of the spare parts. You try reopening this little retail, you could get me into a lot of trouble."

"Heh. You have to ask?"

Naomi tugged on the wince line and began to raise herself into the Gundam's cockpit. "Leave two mobile suits for us. We'll drop them off at Jaburo and let the techies there pick em apart."

Ryo and Brian started towards their own suits, each taking one last look at the strange machines in the pit behind them as they did. "What do you think, Brian?" Ryo muttered over his shoulder.

"I think it's a hell of a coincidence that this base has been in operation for about six months."

"Why?"

"Think about it."

He stopped dead in his tracks, slapped in the face by the sudden truth in the words. "Oh man, you don't mean...!"

_  
- February 9, UC 0084 -  
- 0520 hours (CST) -  
_It was early in the morning. The life support systems were damaged and the air had become oppressively humid again. The water pumps had jammed, and the ship's quarters were unable to get anything but scalding hot water in very sparse amounts. The supply ship had finally made the rendezvous and was transferring equipment, along with replacement pilots and a two additional Rickdom Snipers. Repairs to the Titov were almost complete, but nothing would work until the last of them were finished. 

And on top of all that, Duncan Marquis had a toothache. Seeing his ReGelg laid out in pieces across the Titov's MS deck wasn't doing much to help his mood either. He just stood there, leaning on the railing over the hangar, watching the mechanics catalogue all the damaged parts and reactor components to be replaced sometime later. The ReGelg was only a prototype when they stole the unit from Axis, which meant the mechanics would be repairing it with re-machined Rickdom parts. The more he thought about it, the more angry he became. 

Vanessa was finally up and about after a few days of recuperating, not that it made him feel much better in light of recent developments. Coming out of the corridor into the MS deck behind him, she didn't even have to look on his face to see how truly depressed he was. "Hey Deuce. What's new?"

Duncan turned slowly as she landed against the railing next to him. "Gretta, Frankie, Angie and Braun."

Exactly as she figured, but solving his pickle would be vastly more complicated. "They knew the risks, Deuce. Don't beat yourself up, it wasn't your fault."

"That's what pisses me off about this. I KNOW it wasn't my fault. What the hell are we doing out here?!"

She'd often asked herself that same question, but hearing it in the open stung her somehow. "That's a stupid question and you know it. Do you have any idea what would happen if someone like Bosque Ohm got his hands on a newtype weapon?"

Duncan nodded. It was good to get a reminder of this, though the logic of their chosen method eluded him even now. "Sis, I'm not sure, but I don't think Alicia's part of their crew. I mean, I don't think she fights with them."

"How could she not? Put someone like that in a mobile suit, there'd be no stopping her. And I'm sure THEY know that by now. You read the reports, so you know how they operate."

He remembered it. Project N, the most ambitious weapons program since the Federation's Project V so many years ago. There were eight newtypes, four on Earth, four in space, each trained for combat by researchers at the Murasame Psychic institute on a variety of advanced prototype weapons. The Titans had taken a theoretical concept and proven it for all its horrid implications, bringing to life a nightmare that left Daikun spinning in his grave.

Duncan turned and headed back down the corridor, deciding mid way to check in with Captain Emeril on the bridge. "I'm just saying I don't like it. We've hit the Tarawa three times now and she still hasn't gotten involved yet. Maybe there's some new weapon they're waiting for or maybe they're keeping her in reserve, I don't know. I do know there's something we're not seeing here." 

He slipped into an elevator to the bridge and Vanessa closed the door behind them. "Look Deuce, you know as well as I do it's dangerous to have someone like that in the hands of the Feddies, especially a unit that answers to the Titans. Even if they haven't noticed her abilities yet, which is very unlikely, it's only a matter of time before somebody catches on. Either way, sooner or later..."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I just keep wondering why Frankie and the gang had to die for that."

The doors opened again and both of them pushed off the deck onto the ship's main bridge. Captain Emeril put a headset down on the consol and greeted them with an anxious expression. "I was just about to call you. We've got something interesting on scanners." He gestured towards the main radar screen in the back of the room.

Duncan and Vanessa squinted at it, but all they saw was a fuzzy blob surrounded by two other fuzzy blobs. "What is it?"

"We were tracking it a few minutes ago until the Minovsky density picked up. Profile suggests a Pegasus class and two cruisers."

Duncan looked more closely, looking for anything that might give it away. After a long pause, he added, "Is it the Tarawa?"

"We're not sure, but we think so. It's very unusual to have two Pegasus class ships operating in the same area, even during large scale operations. Besides, our last reports suggested all of their carriers except the Tarawa and the Albion were still in port."

He would have agreed with the suggestion, but something in his gut told him they were on a wild goose chase with this new ship. The again, the projected course the monitor seemed alittle odd. "Where's it headed?"

"That's what we can't figure out. They keep changing course, I don't think THEY know where they're going either."

It seemed all at once obvious to Vanessa. "I bet they're following somebody. Have any of our ships gone missing recently?"

Captain Emeril shook his head. "The whole fleet's accounted for. Aside from us and the Leonov's group, everyone else is helping to move the civilians into Side 7."

All this speculation was good for tactical considerations, but it wouldn't get them very far unless something was done and soon. Duncan looked at his watch again; the ReGelg wouldn't be combat ready for at least another seven hours. "Might as well check it out. Are we close enough to launch mobile suits?"

"If you take a sled, yeah. We can't pinpoint their position, but we can start you in the right direction."

Both of them headed back to the elevator and disappeared from the bridge as quickly as they had come. "I haven't flown a Rickdom in a year. I wonder if I'm rusty?"

"I'm sure you got used to that panoramic monitor." The elevator stopped below decks again and both pushed off and headed back towards the MS deck. "Listen, Deuce, if your girlfriend becomes too much of a problem, I think we'll have to take a trip to Tycho city."

Duncan floated into the large chamber and immediately sought out the two spare Rickdom Snipers in the maintenance slots. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." _If we ever need to use the Zeong, then it's already too late._

  
_- 0920 hours (CST) -  
_"So Riah's behind it after all." Jamitov slapped the report on his desk and smiled grimly. "Typical. It's like I said, Bosque, never trust the spacenoids. They'll say and do anything to get what they want." 

Bosque looked at his own copy of the report, admitting finally that Jamitov had been right all along. "How did we miss that? They completely disregarded our defense treaty with this stunt..."

"I don't blame them. It's a pretty one-sided contract." Admiral Dyson had been sitting silently in the corner until now, but with Bosque quieting down it seemed like a perfect time to make himself felt again. "If you ask me, it's an ingenious program. The mobile suits are manufactured on Earth, smuggled into Side 1 in pieces and then moved to Side 6 to be reassembled by their mechanics. If you think about the terms of the treaty, this doesn't constitute a material breach. Someone's been doing their homework."

This time it was Jamitov's turn to accept his mistake. "I should've figured they wouldn't take that resolution lying down. They've been trying to get the treaty revised since before the war even ended. Spacenoids some of the most stubborn people in the universe."

Bosque nodded in agreement. "And then the Delaz Fleet got us looking the other way. They set up that whole operation right under our noses." He set the report down on the table and stood up in the middle of that office. "Colonel, you DO realize what we're looking at here? In six months, we could have another Zeon on our hands. If we don't move now, it could be too late..."

"Too late for what, Bosque?" Dyson stepped up next to Jamitov's desk, facing both men at the same time. "Riah has always been one of the wimpier democracies in the Earth Sphere. Besides, Lieutenant Wilson's report describes the new models as..." He thumbed through the papers for a quotation, "Third-rate pieces of shit. So what if they ARE building up weapons? They're still not a threat to us. In fact, the worse they could do is give us a reason to pull out our presence in Side 6, and then we could redeploy those forces where they'd be more useful."

"The tech department at Jaburo had a different opinion. Admiral Cowen's people suggest they can easily match if not surpass the performance of our GMs." Bosque tried to remain civil, but his voice was still saturated with contempt despite his best efforts. "Remember, Admiral, most of the Tarawa's crew are spacenoids themselves. We have to take everything they say with a grain of salt until we're in a position to replace them entirely."

Jamitov sighed and leaned back lazily in his chair. "Where's the Trafalgar now?"

Bosque looked at his watch. "Still trailing that Zanzibar. The way they're going, they'll reach Lunar orbit in about three days."

"Do you know where they're headed yet?"

"Not yet. We expect they'll make a course correction at Side 4, then swing around towards wherever it is they're going."

No one had to say what that "wherever" probably would be. The question now fell to what Side 6's reaction would be to the move. _Will Riah pass up this opportunity to piss off the Federation? They'll have most of the colonies supporting them. Even Side 3 wouldn't pass up a chance like this._ "We are at a crossroads, gentlemen. There are those of us within the Titans who think we should work towards an understanding with the colonies to enlist their support with our goals. On the other hand, many of us insist that the colonies should be made to cooperate whether they like it or not." He stood up behind his desk and looked both of them in the eye, making sure each of them knew who as who. "We can't afford to waste time, but we mustn't rush into things while we still have options. We'll wait for Side 6 to make their move, and then we will try to persuade them..." Bosque stomped his foot in anger, but Jamitov stopped him in place with a stern glance, "... we will PERSUADE them to cooperate with the Titans." 

Bosque sighed and stepped back from the desk. "Yes, Colonel."

Jamitov looked now and Admiral Dyson, a powerful intensity behind his stare. "I'm sending you because I believe we can still do this the easy way, IF the colonies can be reasoned with. If not..." He shot a glance at Bosque, who started to grin. "... then I'll send someone a bit more persuasive. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good." Jamitov sat back behind his chair and leaned back lazily. "The Agamemnon is waiting for you, I suggest you head for Side 6 immediately. The Alexandria will launch exactly thirty days behind you with orders to resolve the situation by any means necessary, if you have not already done so when Bosque arrives."

Both men saluted, turned around and left the room through different doors.

Six doors down the hall in the VIP quarters, Lieutenant Larson pulled the microphone out of her ear and stuffed it into her pocket, her mind racing to digest the information. As much as she hated to admit it, she found herself praying for Dyson's success in this operation. The entire Marquis fleet was operating on a principle of allying itself with the Titans in exchange for their protection, but if Dyson failed it meant all bets would be off. And it didn't take much imagination to see the future from there: _First Riah, then he'll turn on us. I bet he'd turn Green Noa-II into a Titans base or something, just wipe out the rest of us..._ She didn't consider herself that bright a character, but if she could tell that much she could barely imagine the look on Admiral Marquis' face when he heard the news. "That's a shame. Looks like I'll be cutting this little exchange program short."

_  
- 2140 hours (EST) -  
_It was night time in this part of the world, which meant little to Jaburo except that the overhead lights were dimmed and most of the restaurants were closed. The local dives, though, were still in force, and on a Friday night like today were their busiest hours of the week. 

Naomi wasn't truly in a bad mood today, just weighted down and soggy from years of regrets. Anyone could see it for themselves, even in the dull lighting of the bar that hid half her face in shadows no matter where she looked. The dream was long dead, all she had left was a chunk of reality waiting for her on a stool at the bar. She'd been sitting there for an hour already, staring at the wood grain pattern with her mind wandering before she finally took it upon herself to place her sacrifice on the altar and be done with it. "Barkeep, heavy one over here. Leave the bottle."

The bartender fetched one for her at first, but then taking a second look at her hesitated for a moment. "Isn't it alittle past your bedtime, kid?"

Naomi adjusted her posture and directed more of his attention to the Lieutenant Commander's pins on her collar. "The Admiral changes my diapers."

"Whatever." He left the bottle there and moved on down the bar.

Naomi popped off the top of the bottle with her thumb, caught it behind her back and reached into her breast pocket and put the picture on the counter. Anna was sixteen then, two weeks before the bombing at the bus station, with the same vivacious smile she always had despite the sadness everyone knew was slowly eating her alive from the inside. "Happy Birthday, Anna." She tilted the bottle back and took a giant gulp, then held it out to the side and poured the rest of it onto the empty stool next to her. She already noticed the bartender becoming extremely annoyed, as was his right. On one side of the room she saw herself in the mirror as she emptied the bottle, but then she did a double take and realized there was no mirror in the room.

Lieutenant Izumi grinned at the now beer-soaked stool next to him as if expecting the ghost there to smile back at him. He saved the last bit of the bottle for himself and gulped it down in one sitting, then picked up the picture and stared at it for a few moments. As usual he felt a bit more at ease, the sacrifice made and the Gods of fate appeased for another year or so until the next anniversary of Emma's death. He was so lost in thought it took him over a minute to notice her take up the stool next to him, looking over his shoulder at the picture in his hands. Eventually he glanced up slowly and stared at her in annoyance. "What is it, Lieutenant?"

"It's called a photograph." She said, still looking at the picture, completely oblivious to his frustration. The girl in the picture was an athletic, dark skinned girl in a bomber jacket and a bandana around her next, leaning half out of the hatch of a construction pod with a smile on her face brighter and more energetic than anyone she'd ever seen. Everything about her seemed to indicate a person of extremely high energy. "Spunky looking thing. That's your fiancé, isn't it?"

Ryo nodded. "Emily Regan, the one and only." He lost himself in the picture, remembering exactly the day and place he had taken it. "She had the enthusiasm of fifty people and the willpower of a thousand. Anything she tried to do, she always succeeded and made it look easy. She was one in a million."

"I know what you mean."

This time it was his turn for jokes, "You had a girlfriend like that?"

She let that one go, hardly in a mood to fight him over this. "She was really special to you, huh?"

He nodded, slapping the picture down on the bar and gesturing for the bartender to send another beer. The man seemed reluctant given his abuse of the last one, but the wad of bills in his pocket seemed to encourage a little forgiveness. "So what brings you to the altar?"

She found his choice of words interesting, as if he knew something about her she hadn't told him yet. In any case, she pulled the picture out of her pocket again and slapped it down in front of her. "Some hooker."

Ryo looked at the picture as long as Naomi had looked at his. "That your sister?"

"Good guess." The barkeep returned with two bottles and planted them on the counter in front of them. "Anna was incredibly stupid, but she was always looking on the bright side of things. No matter how bad things got or what happened to me or her or my brother she always pointed out ways it could be worse." 

They stared at each other's pictures for a moment, then went back to their own. Ryo's brain seemed to go on vacation, but for some odd reason his mouth decided to put in some work. "We were working in the docks when the Zeeks gassed the colony. There were fourteen of us, and all we had were construction pods and some equipment but we figured it was enough to make a stand. Tow cables, laser torch, nothing fancy. Between me and Emma we took out three mobile suits, but their squad leader, I guy named Dieter Cunningham caught her off guard and..." Ryo punched his fist into his palm to demonstrate. "... splat. Two days later, the Feddies try to destroy the colony before it falls, I get blown out of the bay block and the Merrimac picks me up... actually, I crashed through the windows on the command bridge and broke almost every bone in my body."

Naomi grunted and answered him right back, "My mother disappeared when I was three, and my sister had to take care of us after that. Trouble is, she wasn't too bright and the only thing she could do was work the streets for horny retards and perverts. She would work the corners, I'd hang out with some street gangs and stuff and we'd go robbing people, mugging tourists, separating rich people from their money a little at a time." 

"That's when you met Samir, isn't it?"

"Among other people, yeah. Then the war starts, the Zeeks capture Granada, and then some guerilla bands start fighting back. Right after the Battle of Loum, a car bomb takes out the army barracks where Anna gets most of her johns, blows her to bits and leaves me and my little brother shit outa luck." She tucked the picture back into her pocket and finally took up the beer bottle, popped the cap off and took a gulp. Ryo did the same with his, and they sat at the bar in silence as the night grew old, taking their time with it and letting memories march on past to be forgotten in time. 

An hour went by, and Naomi took her picture out again, Ryo did the same, and both looked at theirs for a long time before Naomi spoke again. "Maybe this is just the booze talking, but we're not that different. There's a lot of things about you that remind me of myself."

"Like what?"

"You complain a lot, and you internalize everything so whenever anything happens you take it personally. And besides that, you're a real pain in the ass."

"That's true..." Ryo thought about it, and matching Naomi's declaration found something in her that mirrored his own self, "You put on a lot of faces, Lieutenant. You never show anyone how you really feel or what you're really thinking. In fact, any time you get upset or lonely you either lock yourself in your mobile suit or sit in your quarters staring at the wall for hours. Either way, you're reclusive and anti-social, and it really turns people off."

Now it was her turn to be impressed. She looked at the beer bottles and saw just enough left in either for one last big gulp. Most of it had already gone to her head, but even without the drinks it would have been exactly the same. "You wanna trade?"

"Trade?"

"Yeah, try on each other's memories for a while. Could be interesting."

Ryo looked at his picture again, then at Naomi's picture on the counter between them. "Yeah, what the hell?" Naomi slid hers across the counter, Ryo did the same, both picked up the other's and tucked it away for safekeeping. With one last movement they finished the beers, left their tab on the counter for the barkeep and left the bar through different doors on opposite sides of the building.


	10. Chapter 9: Rules to be Broken

_"It is of fundamental importance to preserve the Earth Federal Forces as the primary instrument of defense and security in the Earth Sphere. We must seek to prevent the emergence of Spacenoid security arrangements which would undermine the EFF..."   
_-- 0071 Jaburo Policy Document

* * *

****

Chapter 9: Rules to be Broken

_- February 14, UC 0084 -_  
_- 0730 hours (EST) -_  
Chase turned the last page of the book and set it down in his lap, feeling a sense of closure at the completion of another good story. He loved that feeling, the inspiration of new beginnings that always followed, but this time when he put the book down he was surprised to find Naomi and Ryo sitting across from him at the table, silently eyeballing each other with a look of pure disgust on both of their faces. "I take it you two got to know each other?" They both nodded and kept eating, still fixing each other in their respective evil-eye glances. "Isn't that supposed to be bad for morale or something?"

Lucy sat down next to him and jumped into the conversation, "Not at all. It's nice to have the Lieutenant pissed at someone else for a change."

"Amen to that." Eric said gruffly

Chase tucked his book into his jacket pocket as Brian and Mike pulled up to the table along with him. "It won't last." Mike said sadly. "She's always this way with the new guys. Remember, Francis got beaten up six times before she warmed up to him."

He started to focus on his food again when Lucy added, "Chase, your girlfriend's here."

"She's not my girlfriend." He said automatically.

Brian tracked Alice's movement along the wall, guiding her way over to the table, seeking out a chair on the side of the table and listening around for the sound of her property. No one spoke, and she grew impatient. "Where's Chase?"

He held up his finger to his lips and shook his head in a silent request, which Brian had no intention of answering. "Second chair from your left."

Chase leaned back and looked at the ceiling in defeat.

Alice worked her way around to the side of the table until she got to his chair, then tugged at his arm and crawled up into his lap facing the others. "Now then, what did I miss?"

"Naomi and Ryo and fighting again." Lucy said boredly.

"Who's winning?"

"I can't tell. It's an ego-war."

"Oh, those are so boring! Why don't we just give em some boxing gloves and have em clobber each other? That always sounds cool."

Naomi turned suddenly with fire in her eyes, "Is there any way to shut her up?"

Alice sat tall and stuck out her chest. "Stuff it, Lieutenant. I'm not scared of you."

She would have been amused, except that Alice had become more familiar to her by now and this seemed less like a playful child and more like a flaunting of her authority. "Don't think I feel sorry for you just because you can't see. In fact, that's more of a reason for you to watch your mouth."

Alice grinned at her. "No, YOU'RE the one who better watch out! If you make me mad, my boyfriend Chase is gonna kick your ass!"

Chase groaned in anxiety and rolled his eyes again. 

Naomi found herself in a position of wanting to be mad at her but finding too much humor in all this to be able to take her seriously. "I worry about you, kid. You're growing up, you need to learn how to act more mature."

Alice grinned at her. "That's a good point. In fact, I'm almost old enough to be a mobile suit pilot like you guys. Before you know it, maybe I'll be part of the Tarawa's Gundam squad with my brother!"

Brian tried not to laugh at her. "I'll have Kelly design a seeing-eye mobile armor."

"You mean a Ball, don't you?" Lucy didn't even miss a beat.

"I heard that!" Ryo started to argue, at once drawing Naomi's fire back in his direction. "Um... okay, Lieutenant, this is getting old. You've got problems with me, I've got problems with you, how about we make a compromise?"

"Like what?"

"Split the squad into two teams, forward and backup. First four Alphas will be the forward team, Mudrock and Guncannon, plus me and Rico will act as backups. This way we've got the heavier weapons in the second squad for when we need them, like against warships or bunkers and whatnot..."

"And it'll get YOU out of my hair."

"Exactly."

Naomi smiled at the pleasant thought of not having to listen to his complaining again, just as he enjoyed the concept of not having to watch her every move in case of friendly fire. "That's an excellent idea. Think we'll do just that."

"Thanks, Lieutenant."

"Don't mention it."

It was strange to hear them actually agree on anything, although everyone knew the spirit behind it was a deep, intrinsic loathing of one another. They all sat there in unbroken silence for a few minutes more, each picking apart their food, Alice helping herself to whatever was on Chase's tray, Eric and Mike trading dishes sporadically.

Half an hour later, Lieutenant Dyson slipped nervously into the mess hall, his eyes quickly seeking out Lieutenant Wilson and Izumi sitting right next to her. He moved in slowly and quietly, extra careful not to draw any attention to himself until he was close enough and finally leaned over Ryo's shoulder opposite Naomi and whispered, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Ryo glanced up and started to ask why, but Dyson shushed him and pulled away from the table before anyone noticed he was there. Ryo followed him away, but not before Alice's ears picked up the strange sounds across from her. "Chase has a boner. I better get off now."

Everyone at the table fell out of their chairs laughing, all except Chase who banged his head against the table in frustration. Alice moved along the wall and listened carefully for them, picking Rico's voice out of the crowd and moving in inconspicuously to hear better. Neither of them noticed her approach, not even as she slithered up to within two feet of Ryo's back to listen in. It was a skill she'd mastered through practice and necessity; they'd never know she was there unless she wanted them to. "... Rico, calm down! What's the problem?"

Alice could hear the stress in Dyson's voice, but she couldn't see the frustration and anger telegraphing in his expression. "Shit, I know why he did it! That back-stabbing bastard just doesn't want me talking so he stuck me here hoping I'll get killed! And he's right, that psycho bitch is gonna shoot me in the back first chance she gets...!"

Ryo grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to shake some sense into him. "Dammit, Rico! Start from the beginning!"

Lieutenant Dyson took two slow breaths and took control of his nerves. "I just came from the fleet office down the street. They denied my request for transfer and they assigned me here!"

"Here?"

"Here, on the Tarawa! I know it's not fleet command who gave the order, it's that goddamn Uncle Juan and his thugs!"

Ryo leaned against the wall next to him casually, feeling the conversation about to get longer and deeper. "Rico, that doesn't make any sense. Why would the Admiral transfer you here? Two months ago you were getting shipped out to the 4th Team on the Agamemnon..."

Rico sighed, his memory finally coming up with its own answer. "It's my fault, I should've known he'd pull this... it's all because I talked to that reporter guy."

"Reporter?" This rang a bell; Ryo remembered vaguely seeing a civilian man in a trench coat prowling around on the Merrimac, but whenever he mentioned it Lieutenant Dyson had always told him not to worry about it. "... what does that have to do with it?"

Rico looked past him at Naomi for just a moment. "It's a long story. Basically, he put me here to shut me up. He's afraid I'm gonna rat him out. Of course, he's right but still..."

"Rat him out for what?"

Rico hesitated for a moment, but decided it was best not to get into it here and now. "I told you, it's a long story."

"You got some history with Naomi...?"

"Just drop it, Ryo. You'll sleep better if you don't know."

Alice had heard more than enough. She knew this bit of information could work to her advantage, though she wasn't sure exactly how or when. She snuck away from their conversation as silently as she had approached, felt her way along the walls to get to the doorway out of the room.  


  
_- 0820 hours (CST) -_  
The bridge had been quiet for the last several hours of the pursuit, even with the ship locked down on Yellow Alert and half the crew at battle stations. Captain McCarthy had only just arrived at the bridge fifteen minutes ago, rubbing his eyeballs from sleep when his radar officer woke from his open-eyed nap to the sound of the proximity alarm on the computer consol. "Possible aspect change on target, sir."

McCarthy stirred in his chair, stretched his legs in boredom. "Is he turning again?"

"Looks like... yes sir, to starboard... HEY!" The radar spiked again with a new energy pattern, lighting up the holographic screen on the top of the bridge with text messages scrolling left and right. "Shit, he's accelerating!"

Captain McCarthy wasn't sleepy anymore. Now he was sitting straight up in his chair with his hair standing on end. "Which way is he headed?"

"Can't tell... Lagrange Five, I think. It's either Side 1 or Side 6, or he could try to swing through there to get to Side 3."

McCarthy knew better. "No, it's Side 6 for sure. They must've spotted us pursuing." He was indecisive for a moment, caught somewhat off guard by this move. The enemy cruiser could pass Side 6's perimeter in a matter of hours where they were now, and the Trafalgar wouldn't have more than one or two tries to intercept it before then. The mission was effectively failed; wherever else that ship would have gone, it wouldn't dare go there with a Federation battlegroup on their tale. "Okay, plan-B. Chief Bowman, sound General Quarters and get those mobile suits launched. Tell Lieutenant Marist to try to disable him before he gets across the border." The Captain waited as his first officer sounded the alarms, felt the slight rumble as the massive doors of the MS deck opened for the ship's mobile suits to scramble into space. Overhead, the large radar screen still scrolled messages alongside blips and clouds giving both him and his radar officers 360 degrees of information. Something about the scene troubled him deeply, but he wasn't sure just what it was... "Bowman, have our cruiser support take up a defensive formation around the ship. I got a funny feeling about this."

The three Salamis cruisers shifted in there formation around the carrier, moving out from their in-line flight to a triangle around its flanks to protect it from attack. For just a few moments Duncan worried that they'd spotted his approach, but his scans showed that the launching mobile suits were headed off into the distance in the opposite direction, none of them even looking back. _That Captain's just being cautious. Better watch my step here._ He was more than a hundred miles to starboard of the Federation ships where he could watch their movements, with Vanessa's mobile suit right alongside. They waited for a few minutes and watched the mobile suits zoom off into the distance, letting them get plenty of separation from the carrier and its escorts before they moved closer for a better look at their targets. At fifty miles he moved closer to her and set his hand against her shoulder armor to talk to her directly, "What can you see, Sis?"

Vanessa zoomed in the targeting scope on her large beam cannon to maximum grimacing at the reduced resolution and grainy image from the less-powerful computer. "I miss my Burstliener... Got em, computer tracks eight mobile suits moving on a low-angle course." 

"What types?"

"Not sure. They look too fast to be Gundams, but they might be upgrades. Looks like they're moving to intercept that Zanzibar."

"It could be the Tarawa..." For the second time today, Duncan was thoroughly confused. "You're SURE it's not registered to our fleet?"

"I'm positive. Databanks call it a civilian vessel."

"Hmm..." He wasn't one to jump in without knowing exactly what was going on, but he too had a very strange feeling that something fishy was going on here. Scanning ahead he saw only three GMs actually space borne right now, one from each of the cruisers, moving close to cover the Trafalgar as it launched its suits "Will they launch the rest of their mobile suits?"

"No, but if they're moving into defensive positions they're probably thinking about it."

"Then let's make a run on them before they decide."

Vanessa clicked off the safety on the giant cannon and powered up for her first shots. "Remember, this thing runs off a capacitor like a normal beam cannon. I'll only get three or four shots before I run out of power."

Duncan nodded and checked the chamber on the Raketen bazooka on his shoulder. "We're both running unplugged here. Just try and do your best." He fired his thrusters and surged forward, leaving Vanessa behind to pick out her first target.

On the Trafalgar, Captain McCarthy's nerves started jumping even more and the sides of his head started to throb. CPO Bowman was the only one on the bridge to notice his discomfort and stepped up slowly to the captain's chair. "You alright sir?"

"Fine, Chief, just feeling a little pressure all of a sudden..." A brilliant light filtered in through the side windows and the entire ship rocked to the side from a thunderous impact. Everyone on the bridge turned suddenly to see pieces of a GM scattering into space, and then another GM turned and fired into the void just before a bazooka shell slammed into it and destroyed it as well. One bright red object soared through the debris of the two dead mobile suits and passed under the Trafalgar's hull like a lightning bolt. "Son of a bitch! Radar, you takin a nap up there or what?!"

"There's an I-field forming on the starboard quarter! The computer didn't spot them until they got closer to...!"

"No excuses! Call back the mobile suits right now...!" McCarthy watched Duncan's Rickdom Sniper circle back around in the distance, diving in to attack another one of the cruisers in their pack. The ship's defensive guns were already firing, and now two of its GMs launched from the deck and opened fire with beam guns as he drew near. The Rickdom ignored the cruiser for a time, dodged a few blasts from the beam guns and then put a single bazooka round into the chest of the GM before disengaging and flying off again. "Didn't you hear me?! Call them back!"

"We're out of communications! Minovsky particle jamming is too heavy to penetrate..."

"Then send up a flare! Call them back right now...!" Duncan's Rickdom passed over the deck right in front of the bridge, stopped in space and fired one bazooka shell straight into the hull below the bridge tower. The explosion ripped open the armored hatch above the secondary bridge, and a secondary explosion followed as the ship's forward main gun exploded beneath it. 

Three GMs from one of the cruisers moved up behind the Rickdom and opened fire. Duncan fired the spray beam on his chest, blinding all three at once as he pulled away. One GM stopped for too long and Vanessa's beam cannon unleashed a column of fire; the beam encompassed the entire suit from head to toe, then blew it away like a sandcastle in a hurricane. The three Salamis cruisers responded immediately, turning their guns in her direction and firing with everything they were worth. Vanessa aimed and fired one more shot, this time striking the starboard MS deck of the Trafalgar dead on before retreating away from the barrage of the Salamis cruisers. "I hit it, Deuce! Focus your attention on the portside MS deck and then we can...!"

"Don't bother, Sis." Duncan made another high speed pass of the cruiser to see for himself, dodging its defensive guns easily as he got a look at the numbers painted on the side of the MS deck. "MSC-01... I knew it, she's not here."

It was disheartening, but Vanessa lined up another shot on the carrier as she dodged the fire from the Salamis cruisers. "Let's sink it anyway! What's another Pegasus class to the Feddies? They don't even make em anymore..."

"Negative, I want to see what those other mobile suits were up to." Duncan pulled away from the carrier and its three ships, dodging a few parting shots from the GM team as he cruised away and followed the path of the Trafalgar's mobile suits. _That's weird. Vanessa's acting really immature lately..._

******

Ensign Layla was as nervous as she'd ever been, even with the confidence she had in her new mobile suit. The RMS-117 Galbaldy was state of the art, with better acceleration and responsiveness than any mobile suit in the Federation's arsenal. At the same time she was nervous she was also trembling with excitement; she'd waited so long to see how the new suit would behave in actual combat.

Lieutenant Marist raised his hand and waved back to the others, gesturing 'target sighted' and pointing in the right direction. Layla scanned ahead and the computer magnified the image on a separate window. The cruiser looked older than it probably was, its hull covered in patches and panels of different colors and sizes where hasty repairs had been made permanent and damaged spots had been reinforced. If the ship belonged to any military, Layla would've had kittens. "Here we go. Let's see what this Galbaldy can do..."

As soon as they were in range, Lieutenant Marist fired a burst from his beam rifle into the hull of the ship. Part of the armor broke free in a small explosion, but in an instant the Zanzibar filled the sky with flak from what seemed like a thousand different guns and small missile launchers all around them. It took all eight of them completely by surprise, and even Lieutenant Marist had to stop his advance and keep his distance. "Shit, they really beefed up the defenses on this thing!" He took aim with his rifle and fired a few shots, this time clipping off an even larger piece of the hull with a slightly larger explosion. But when the fireball cleared, the blown out section of hull only revealed a second layer of metal underneath it, scratched but still not penetrated to the ship's inner hull.

Layla and Eddie moved around behind the cruiser, braving bursts of fire from the small guns until they too were close enough to attack. Layla fired several blasts from the beam rifle into the rear of the ship, ripping out entire sections of the hull at once. To her astonishment, as sections of hull plating fell away there seemed to be even more armor underneath it just daring her to try and hit the same spot again. "Damn, it's like peeling an onion! How are we supposed to...?!" More shooting crossed in front of her vision, but this time from a different direction. She spun around to face the new attacker and was faced with another surprise: four mobile suits of a type she'd never seen before with high caliber rifles in hand, firing across her face in an obvious bid to drive her off. She locked her beam rifle on target, but before she could fire again the suit let off several blasts with his own rifle, forcing her to evade again. "This is Layla to Lieutenant Marist, unidentified mobile suits engaging me!"

"Hang on, Layla, I'll be right there..." Two quick shots crossed in front of his face as he said it, and in an instant he found himself pinned between the enemy suit and the Zanzibar's thick defensive fire. He raised his rifle to shoot back, but the next shot from the enemy suit scored a direct hit, cutting through his right shoulder and ripping the arm from the socket immediately. He fought to keep the suit level, dodging more fire from the enemy suit as he did and then pulled away from the fight as fast as his thrusters could carry him. He drew his beam saber from his other shoulder and started to engage again when several bright flashes caught his eye; one of the new suits had sent up a cease-fire signal. "Marist to all units, hold your fire! I say again, hold your fire!"

Layla stopped in space, keeping her rifle trained on the enemy suit incase it tried something. The Zanzibar stopped shooting, as did her adversary, locking everyone involved into an instant standoff. "Lieutenant, there's eight of us and six of them. They caught us off guard but...!"

"Hold your fire, Layla!" Marist had already noticed his position here. All six of them had them surrounded, pinned down by the Zanzibar and its defensive guns and putting them in a position to be attacked from too many sides at once. And then one of them broke formation; the leader's mobile suit moved past him and put itself between Marist and the Zanzibar, its rifle trained on him every inch of the way. Somehow he could tell that the pilot could easily hit him even from that distance if he made a false move. "This is Lieutenant Marist to unknown mobile suit, identify yourself immediately."

The pilot came up on his monitor with a somewhat disgusted look on her face. "This is Captain Mackenzie of the Riah Defense Force's, 03rd Mobile Suit Team. This ship is registered and licensed by the Government of Side 6."

"Side 6? Are you joking?"

"This is no joke. That ship's cargo is 1900 refugees fleeing a terrorist attack on an industrial sight six days ago. We've been ordered to escort our citizens to safe haven within our borders."

Layla could barely contain herself. "Bullshit! This vessel is transporting rebel personnel and their equipment from a terrorist stronghold! If you aide these terrorists, you WILL be targeted!"

Marist tried his best not to laugh on an open channel. "Well said, Ensign. Captain Mackenzie, we cannot allow this ship to..." Three more flashes of light in the distance, this time launched from the Trafalgar's flare gun in the bright orange 'return to base' signal. The flares were scattered and random, and the first three were followed by more than a dozen more one after another. Marist could tell from this that something had gone terribly wrong. "Damn... all units, disengage and pull back immediately! The Trafalgar must be under fire!"

Layla took a moment and scanned all six of the enemy mobile suits briefly, then turned and followed the others back to the carrier on their retreat path. As soon as they were out of sight, the six Riah mobile suits gathered around the Zanzibar cruiser as it continued on its path, still keeping an eye on the Feddy suits as they retreated. With all their attention diverted, not to mention the limitations of their sensors, they all failed to notice the silhouette of a Tivvay class heavy cruiser discretely following them towards Side 6, opening its forward hatch as two Rickdom Snipers landed aboard to give their report to the ship's weary captain.

Side 6's borders were about to become extremely crowded.

  
_- February 17, UC 0084 -_  
_- 1240 hours, (EST) -_  
Kelly ran behind her to keep up, but Naomi's frustrated pacing was already starting to wear him out. He was sure if he didn't calm her down soon she'd carve a gigantic ring in the MS deck and tunnel her way to China. "Lieutenant, I told you I already filed a complaint with the brass! They told us the decision is final and that...!"

"I don't care what they told you, it's not gonna happen! I don't care how nice they are... they can walk on water for all I care! They're not taking away my Gundam, and that's final!"

Kelly groaned, feeling alittle like a big brother trying to coax a small child into giving up her favorite toy. "It's not up to you. If I had my way, I'd keep them too, but the brass has already made their decision. You do understand that the maintenance cost on one of these machines is astronomical."

"So they give us a garbage mobile suit that doesn't even work?! Not on my ship! Alex is the fastest and most powerful mobile suit in the Federation today...!"

Kelly took a deep breath and tried to end this conversation quickly. "Look, I know how you feel, really I do, but there's nothing we can do about it. According to the Titans, there's no such thing as newtypes, therefore there's no point in having newtype-use weapons. That's the OFFICIAL statement, anyway."

Naomi stopped pacing and looked at him with renewed interest. "Official statement, huh? What've you heard?"

Kelly stepped closer to her and spoke softly, "My brother works in the tech department at California Base, and he heard some scuttlebutt on the grapevine. Carter's having all four Alpha's upgraded and then transferred to his new flagship for Titans pilots." 

"What new flagship?"

"I don't know. Something they were building at Konpei Island right before Operation Stardust. The Alpha Gundams will be getting an extensive overhaul and redesignated 'Gundam Mk-I.'"

Naomi grinned. _They just keep changing your name, don't they Alex?_ "Is that to say there's a Mk-II in development?"

"Probably. You know how the Titans are."

"Yeah..." she heard something from far above them and looked up to see the Mudrock's cockpit open, some light flashing from inside from the playing of the monitors. "How come they're not taking Mudrock?"

Kelly smiled. "That's the good news. They didn't want Mudrock, so they let us keep it until it wares out. And don't get your hopes up, but there's a chance they'll let us keep Alex for a while too."

"With any luck..." There was more noise from inside the cockpit, chaotic this time like someone pounding their fists on the controls and the computer screeching back in protest. "What's Brian doing in there?"

Kelly smiled again, "That's just Alice playing around."

She stared up for a moment, then looked back down slowly at Kelly, trying not to let herself smile. "That's a breach in procedure, Kelly. You know this hangar's off limits to civilians..."

"She was bored. Sue me."

"I intend to." Naomi stepped onto a lift in front of the Gundam and raised the platform up to cockpit level, finally stopping just where she could see the girl in the cockpit with a frustrated expression as her fingers clawed at the instrument panel. Somehow she had separated the headset for the psycommu interface from the suit helmet and was wearing the frame around her head like the world's most complicated set of headphones. Naomi tried again not to laugh. "Cut it out, kid. The Gundam is not a toy."

"I know that, but I can't... dammit!" She flipped two more switches one after another and the monitors clicked off again, but at the same time the generator raised its power level and brought the computer online. "Shit... Lieutenant, can you give me a hand here?"

"What's wrong?" Naomi moved into the cockpit and perched on the side panel.

"I can't get this interface thing to work. Every time I power up the suit, the sensors go away."

This time she lost control. Naomi started laughing quietly as the situation unfolded. "Can you actually see anything?" She said in a playful tone.

"Of course not. It's just that whenever the sensors come on, the machine tells me where everything is. The walls and the other mobile suits and the shapes and things... it's like when I memorize my way around, only it happens instantly."

"That's good... that's great. Your brother's had some problems with this machine, so I'm glad you're getting used to it."

Alice was visibly confused. "Why? Aren't you gonna kick me out?"

"Hmmmm... maybe later. What was your problem with the sensors again?"

"Watch." With a strange kind of precision, Alice's fingers worked over the instrument panel and reset all the switches to the suit's waiting mode. She reached over and pressed two buttons on the side and the monitors came back on again. "See? The sensors come back now on the secondary system, but then when I try to power up the primary..." Naomi watched with amazement as she went through the Gundam's entire startup program as if she had done so a million times. She flipped the last two switches for reactor startup, and once again the mobile suit came to life as the monitors shut down again. "See? Every time I... oh wait..." She reached over again and tapped the controls, and then the monitors switched back on. "I get it, you have to transfer the sensors over from the secondary system when you start up the primary! I think I got it now!"

For just a few moments Naomi was impressed, but little by little she felt more afraid than anything else. "I'm just curious, did you figure this out all by yourself?"

"Well, yeah."

"How?"

Alice shrugged. "I dunno, just play with it, see what everything does."

"The 'what does this button do' system?"

"Basically."

Normally she would have thought it curious and left it at that, but if she was right about her, this was the moment she would know for sure. "Raise the left arm."

"How?"

"Figure it out."

With no sign of hesitation or fear, Alice took both control sticks in hand and immediately started moving them. Naomi felt a surge as the Gundam straightened up, then another one as the suit suddenly stepped forward off the maintenance rack, then again as the Gundam turned completely around in place. "Oh cool! I figured out how to make it walk!"

Naomi grabbed a firm hold of the instrument panel for balance. "Good job, but can you just raise the left arm?"

"I'll get to it. Let's see... what happens when I push these pedals?"

"NO, DON'T PUSH THOSE PE...!" Alice's feet came down and the Gundam's thrusters exploded into action. The Mudrock Gundam surged forward across the MS deck, charging down the catapult line and out of the open launch hatch at the front of the bay into the underground space port of Jaburo. It soared high over the tops of buildings, outcroppings of rock and two highways before Alice took her feet off the pedals and pulled the controls back. The mobile suit tilted back too much in the air and Alice overcompensated with a move of the controls; the Mudrock belly flopped on a sheet of rock, skidded for a few meters to come to rest just before the edge of a cliff.

Captain Shiden watched from the bridge for a few moments before calling any kind of alert, and breathed a small sigh of relief as the Gundam started moving again and finally came up to its feet. Even then it didn't head back to the Tarawa, but started walking slowly and carefully around inside the caves of Jaburo base as if learning to walk for the first time. "Mr. Holland, who's piloting that Gundam?"

The comm. officer turned around and grinned. "Brian's sister, Sir. Naomi's giving her flight lessons."

"Really?" Captain Shiden leaned forward with more interest now. "They should work on that landing."

"No kidding."

Lieutenant Browning focused one of the ship's cameras on the Gundam and put it on the main monitor, zoomed in as far as it could go. Mudrock was moving clumsily and very slowly, but with every second seemed to be getting more confident. It seemed she was finally getting the hang of it, but up ahead of the mobile suit the terrain was becoming more and more uneven and littered with loose rock and wet surfaces. Browning turned over his shoulder to the other radar operator, "Hey Simon, wanna make a friendly wager?"

Ensign Franks chuckled. "Twenty bucks says she doesn't fall."

"I'll take that bet."

"Me too," Captain Shiden added in. "Four to one odds."

Ensign Franks chuckled again. "Don't underestimate the power of youth..."

Captain Shiden rolled his eyes. "In that case, six to one odds."

_  
- February 16, UC 0084 -_  
_- 1820 hours (CST) -_  
District Attorney Cameron Bloom was angry, anyone could see it perfectly well. Storming down the corridor, pushing interns and secretaries out of his way until he finally arrived in the meeting room in the port of Londenium Colony where the Admiral waited for him. The viewing dome overlooked the Titans heavy cruiser Agamemnon, having entered Side 6's port without permission as usual and forced its way into a spot in the middle of the bay where everyone could see it entering or leaving. But that wasn't what angered him at all; he owed that to the six GM Quels with hyper bazookas and machineguns standing on the deck. Londenium's defense forces had been forced to respond, deploying ten balls and four of the new AMS-57 Hercules mobile suits to make sure the Titans weren't up to anything. Riah's new mobile suits weren't much to look at, but many an officer in the Federation could remember thinking the same thing about Zeon's Zaku-II mobile suits when he first received the intelligence reports.

Standing in the office, watching what amounted to a standoff in the middle of a space colony, Admiral Dyson seemed unusually calm about the whole situation. "So the security treaty wasn't enough for you people, is that it?"

Cameron slapped his briefcase on the desk and yanked it open, trying to draw the man's attention away from the window. With all the grace of a stampeding bull he whipped out the papers and waved them in his hand, "Admiral Dyson, Riah's Chamber of Commerce wants you out of this colony in the next twenty four hours or they are to be removed by force. They're unanimous on this resolution..."

"That's their prerogative, but we're not going anywhere."

Cameron slapped the papers down, hoping to get him to at least turn away from the window. "Dammit Dyson, this is not the time to be flexing your muscles! The Riah Government is giving you a day's time to leave, after that you'll be considered a hostile force...!"

"...And the Titans will take it as an act of aggression, and then we will smash you." Dyson turned away from the window and walked over to the desk, reached into his jacket and slapped his own papers on top of Cameron's papers. The one on top was the most interesting: a photograph taken from a Side 6 news crew showing a Titans battle group with all of its twenty two mobile suits flying in formation just ahead of them. "The live feed will be airing in about fifteen minutes if I'm not mistaken. You're exactly right, Cameron, this is not the time to flex muscles."

Cameron picked up the picture, studied it, then thumbed through the other papers to back up what the photograph showed him in so few words. "I'll be... the Alexandria, Brunei, Sachiwaru, New Guinea..."

"And that's just the main push. The Trafalgar and the Tarawa will be moving into position on the opposite flanks to box you in. And let's not forget the three Salamis cruisers currently parked on your doorstep, not to mention the fleet battlecruiser in this very space dock with a full load of mobile suits ready and willing to take this colony by force." Dyson slipped Cameron's papers out from under his own and skimmed the text shortly. "Don't make the mistake of thinking this is some kind of standoff. The only reason we're having this conversation is because Colonel Jamitov is in a REALLY good mood. If Captain Bosque had his way, you would already be dead."

Cameron did everything he could to calm his temper now and looked the Admiral dead in the eye. He knew Jamitov's reputation, as well as most of his lackeys. The only reason the man would assemble a combat force of that size was if he intended to use it very soon. Finally it was clear to him exactly what they were negotiating in this office. "What are your terms, Dyson?"

"I should force you to dismantle every last one of your fancy new mobile suits, but for the sake of fairness, I'll offer you a compromise." Dyson stepped away from the table and went back to looking out the window. "Ten days ago, a Zanzibar class battlecruiser lifted off from an underground mining base in Afghanistan. The assault carrier Trafalgar and its battle group followed it to Side 6, but were intercepted by armed guerillas before they could apprehend the fugitives. Eighteen crewmen were killed, our carrier was damaged and four of her mobile suits were destroyed. Someone is going to be held accountable for this."

Cameron had already seen it coming, as had the Chamber of Commerce when they briefed him for the meeting before he left Berliose Colony. "These 'fugitives' as you call them have been identified as citizens of Side 6. The ship is registered to Avalon Motors, a multinational corporation that has serviced this government for over thirty years. The passengers of that ship are all civilians themselves, mainly construction workers, engineers and their families, just under two thousand men women and children." 

"And the others?"

"We don't know much about the guerillas, but our intelligence believes they may belong to the same faction that attacked Acheron Colony two weeks ago and destroyed ten of our mobile suits. If they've taken refuge in Side 6, which is very likely based on our intelligence, our defense forces will find them and bring them to justice."

Dyson frowned sourly. "Unacceptable. Side 6 needs to open its borders to Titans forces so we can apprehend those criminals on our own. We are authorized by the Federation to pursue Zeon combatants wherever they take refuge..."

"... when they're on YOUR turf, Admiral. Side 6 has authorized no such action. They're criminals, and as long as they seek refuge in our borders, they will be prosecuted like any other criminals in a court of law. That is, unless you can prove to me that we're at war with someone, which we both know you can't. The same goes for the Zanzibar and the civilians on board. If any of them are guilty of criminal actions, they will be given a fair trial."

Dyson didn't answer right away, and Cameron understood immediately that the man was only half listening to him. "I will only repeat this one more time: we want those fugitives extradited to Earth immediately."

"And I will repeat again, we can't do that unless you go through proper channels! It's not that hard, Admiral, the paperwork is two pages long! I don't care if you're the Titans, the President, my mother, Jesus Christ himself; if you want us to extradite them, file charges with Interpol like everyone else!"

"I'm sorry, Cameron, but the Titans are NOT everyone else." Dyson turned away from the window again and put down one more paper, this one a signed and handwritten statement from Jamitov himself. "Maybe you're confused. That was not a request, that was an ultimatum. Hand over the ship and the fugitives, and open your borders so we can hunt down those Zabi terrorists. The Titans have been authorized to attack any nation state found harboring Zeon remnants..."

"I told you, they're our own citizens! Are you even listening, Dyson?! You can't arrest colony citizens without a general warrant with Interpol...!"

"Who said anything about arresting them?" The Admiral took a step back from the desk and took another slip of paper out of his jacket, "I'll leave it up to you to make it perfectly clear to your bosses that Side 6 is either with us or against us on this matter. If you cooperate with us, we'll make a compromise and allow you to keep the weapons you've been assembling... with some restrictions, of course. But if you continue to make yourselves an obstacle to the defense of the Federation, The Titans will forcibly disarm and then occupy Side 6. Your colonies would become subject to Federation rule for a VERY long time."

"Over my dead body... but I'll pass that on for you, Admiral." Cameron took the note and closed it up in his briefcase. This meeting had already gone on far too long and he was only too happy to see it ended. No sooner did he begin walking back towards the door did he notice the Admiral still staring out the window, that same disdain and disrespectful attitude he always had whenever he set foot on Side 6. He decided now was a good time for a cheep shot. "I make it a point to be well informed, Dyson, especially about the people I'm forced to negotiate with. Rumor has it you have a very... interesting hobby."

Dyson didn't even flinch at the remark. "Rumors are rumors, Cameron. I suggest you learn the difference and quickly."

"I have a pretty good source, one that I think is pretty reliable."

Dyson picked up something in his voice and grinned. "You have a question, don't you? Might as well ask while you have this chance."

He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he was being baited but in the end not really caring. "How exactly do you live with yourself? All the pain you've caused in the world and all the suffering you've created, and you don't feel any remorse whatsoever?"

Dyson turned away from the window slowly and started to laugh. "Are you vegetarian?"

"What does that have to do with...?"

"This human race has mutilated billions of animals of all varieties just to fill its own belly. We do it every day, without a second thought, causing unspeakable miseries to dozens of species who don't understand the reason or even the instrument of their demise. If you don't feel remorse for them, why should I feel any remorse for the spacenoid trash that inhabits Lower Granada? They have no future, no aspirations, and they're not worth many regrets."

Cameron felt nauseous, and ducked out of the room as quickly possible before Dyson could say anything more.

  


* * *

Author's note:   
1.) This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is entirely coincidental. (Though not necessarily accidental ^_~) 

2.) Today's chapter quote is very special. It is actually a paraphrasing of a real statement I happened across during my various surfing periods on the web. I DID NOT MAKE THIS UP, IT IS ENTIRELY AUTHENTIC.

**"It is of fundamental importance to preserve NATO as the primary instrument of Western defense and security ...We must seek to prevent the emergence of European only security arrangements which would undermine NATO." **_   
--1992 Pentagon policy document_

O_o


	11. Chapter 10: Persuasion

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.

-Benjamin Franklin

* * *

****

Chapter 10: Persuasion

__

- March 1, UC 0084 -  
It was an amazing thing that the standoff had dragged no as long as it had; suffice to say that the bureaucrats in the Riah government had learned their craft extremely well. Somehow, by saying just the right things to just the right people at exactly the right times, Side 6 had dragged out this situation for the better part of a month and still the Titans had not forced their entry into the colonies. But tensions were at an all time high in any case. The Federation Naval base in Libot Colony had put itself on siege status and was under constant alert, while three battle groups of either Titan or Federation vessels held station near the Side 6 border amongst debris fields where their exact position could not always be confirmed. 

Earth-based newspapers were calling it the largest offensive since Abau-Aqu, some even went so far as to call it the Federation's first counter attack for Operation Stardust. The spacenoid press had a very different view on this; the Federation force of sixteen warships and eighty mobile suits was seen as little more than a gang of jackbooted thugs knocking on the door of the notoriously peaceful colonies of Side 6. Where Earthnoid press made a huge fuss about Side 6's "massive arsenal of super weapons" and advanced technology banned by their security treaty with the Federation, spacenoid press counted only seventy five of new mobile suits in all of their twenty colonies, along with over two hundred RB-79 battlepods bought from a Federation surplus and a dozen or more GM models purchased the same way. Arithmetic of the opposing armies ran more in favor of Side 6, but anyone keeping touch with the situation knew the truth. This stood to be one very short and very bloody conflict, one whose outcome was as inevitable as the consequences that would immediately follow.

The two thousand refugees of the first Zanzibar knew what to expect if and when the Titans captured the colony, and gathering any belongings along with relatives and acquaintances they made arrangements in small packs for their exodus from Side 6. Two thousand became five thousand, and a mass of civilian transports were fuelled and stocked for their desperate run. In that time, Side 6's defenses were gearing up for combat even as their politicians stalled for more time. Admiral Dyson's impatience grew day by day, while Captain Bosque sat calmly and waited for his turn. Side 6 could not stall them forever and he knew it at least as well as his opponents did. In the days and hours preceding the opening strikes, everyone involved knew history was about to be made.

Not that some of the soldiers didn't have time for fun while they waited for the invasion signal...

__

  
-1005 hours (CST) -  
Mechanics and crew crowded around monitors and viewport all over the ship to get a better view. Anyone off duty came to the bridge and crowded into the back of the room, watching on the big monitor with their fists curled tightly in anticipation. Kelly had all the odds scrawled out on a sheet of paper, sweating bullets through his flight suit as the fight went on. If this went as he thought he would, he would not only win back his previous losses but win back that same amount and then some, but ONLY if she won this fight in under the time he'd predicted. "C'mon, kid... strut your stuff..."

Lieutenant Browning reported on the ship's P.A. system, "The Mudrock has moved into a field of colony wreckage! Looks like they're engaging in close range now!"

Kelly's palms started to sweat. "C'mon, you can do it...!"

Alice cut back and forth through fragments of debris towards the mangled remnants of the colony cylinder, hoping to use it as cover to get behind her opponent. All this maneuvering was harder on her, sitting on Brian's lap as she was, but she was so much faster than her pursuer she made up the difference anyway. Naomi started to lag behind now, but her aim with the machinegun was still just as accurate as ever. "You might as well give up, little girl! You can't shake me in this debris field!"

"Oh yeah?! Watch me!" She kicked in the thrusters to full and pulled away from Naomi, feeling the acceleration slamming her back into Brian's chest. Once she had some distance she turned around and fired a long spraying burst from the machinegun, but Naomi dodged every last shell like a true professional and closed in again. Alice turned and went back to running, again relying on her speed to keep a distance between them. Alex sent a few bursts her way from its gun, and as before the Mudrock cut back and forth as it accelerated away from her towards the colony.

Brian could barely see anything at the speed they were moving. "Slow down! There's too much debris to move like this..."

"I'm fine! The mobile suit can see better than you can!"

"Funny you should say that..." Alice stopped in space and boosted straight up where she was, crashing through a cluster of scrap metal and scattering it in all directions before turning back towards the ruined space colony. Naomi's computer lost track of her in the commotion, but then picked her up again as she sped away from her and gave chase once again. "Oh, you almost lost her that time!"

"I'm not trying to loose her!" She finally reached what was left of the colony and slipped inside through an opening in the side walls just as a burst of paintball rounds from Naomi's gun splattered behind her. 

The Alex followed cautiously, making sure not to walk into Alice's guns and slipped into the wrecked cylinder, looking around for any movement. Everything was still, not even a heat source for her to home in on. She moved into the middle of the wrecked cylinder and started scanning for hiding places. "Hide and seek, is that it?" She picked out a group of crushed buildings floating freely close to the opposite wall and fired a long burst from her machine gun to scatter anything that might be hiding there. Still no movement.

Naomi changed clips on the gun and moved closer to the colony wall, scouring the gutted city below for her target. "You can't hide forever, kid..."

"I don't intend to."

"Why don't you come out and fight me?"

"Maybe I will." Naomi slowed down her search and waited. A few moments of stillness passed, and then she spotted some movement out of the corner of her eye and turned and fired on instinct. The paintball rounds splattered against the Mudrock's arm shield, but the mobile suit was nowhere in sight. What happened next was too fast for even her gun camera to catch. She just blinked, and suddenly the Gundam was right in front of her. Even Naomi couldn't react fast enough; both of its cannons fired from less than twenty feet away from her and the impact knocked the Alex into a spin, its chest armor now covered in bright green paint. Naomi stabilized and fired back at the empty space where the Gundam had just been, and then she felt another impact from behind as the cannons hit her from behind. "Checkmate! You are SO dead!"

The entire crew of the Tarawa exploded in a roar, regardless of who they had actually bet on. Lieutenant Browning announced the winner on the P.A. as if anyone hadn't already seen it on the monitors, Eric and Mike slapped Chase on the back, Kelly added up his bets on the notebook and calculated his winnings. Rico's was the most unique reaction; he quietly slipped into a seat in the cafeteria, popped two peptobismols into his mouth and sipped a cup of black coffee. Captain Shiden picked up a handset and addressed the entire ship, "Attention all hands, pay close attention to this, you might have just seen history in the making! In light of such a huge upset and the fact that roughly half the crew is now out several hundred dollars, I am officially allotting a double portion of the Tarawa's beer ration to Brian and Alicia Anderson!"

Ensign Franks looked down in confusion, "Beer, sir? I'm not sure Alice would be all that excited."

"Good point..." The Captain thought for a long moment, then came up with a better idea. "In addition, I'd like to recognize a new addition to our crew. As of 0700 hours today, I'm extending a deputy field commission to Petty Officer Alicia Anderson who will be assigned duties as the Tarawa's morale officer and color guard, with all the rights and privileges thereof."

Ensign Franks looked down again, "Color guard?"

"She carries the flag during ceremonies."

Lieutenant Browning joined their confusion. "I thought YOU were supposed to do that?"

The Captain shrugged. "Back in the old days they had one soldier whose sole duty was to carry the flag around in battles, marches, funerals and stuff." The two mobile suits appeared in the distance on their way back, with Lucy's Gundam bringing up the rear with am arm full of long range camera equipment. "Besides, it's a good start. Another year, she'll be promoted to the ship's media spokesman, and after that... who knows? She could grow into a fine officer in a few years time if she's still interested."

Lieutenant Browning glanced over his shoulder at Franks and shook his head sadly. Franks just shrugged. "Somehow I don't think it'll work out like that..."

The Tarawa's MS hatch opened as the two suits came in. Naomi came in first, landed gently on the starboard deck and immediately planted her feet and spun around. Brian looked over her shoulder and watched the approach on the monitors. "Okay Alice, just like we practiced."

"Relax, I can do it."

"That's what you said the last time and you almost killed us." Alice moved the controls in small movements, keeping the mobile suit lined up in its approach on the way in. They were still a good distance away, but their relative speed was still very low. Brian watched every display and every gauge and dial in the cockpit and just started to relax when Alice's feet pushed down on the foot pedals again. "Don't add any more thrust..."

Annoyed with his back seat driving, Alice slammed the pedals to the floor and pushed the controls to the front. Mudrock went from a slow approach to a mad charge into the hangar, and all at once everyone in the crew held their breath. The Alex adjusted its footing on the hangar deck and raised its hands to catch her. "You know something, Big Brother..." She made only small movements with the controls to adjust her approach, and then at the last second threw the legs forward and fired the thrusters on full power. "...I don't need all this negativity." The G-Force slammed both of them forward as the Gundam slowed. In less than a second its speed dropped off and the mobile suit's feet made solid contact with the deck. The knees buckled to absorb the force, then after a moment or so it straightened up and Alice began walking it back into the hangar. "Sometimes I wish you'd be more supportive of me."

"Supportive?! You won didn't you?!"

"Yeah, I won. But you still think I'm just some goofy little kid who likes to play with giant robots." She stopped the suit halfway into the deck, then tapped the switch to open the hatch. "I really am getting better at this, you know. Before you know it, I'll be ready for the real thing." She released the restraints and pulled off the psycommu headset, then groped around the cockpit to find her way to the hatch.

Brian followed close behind. "Alice, I hate to break this to you, but no matter how good you may be, you're still nowhere near being ready. The youngest pilot on record was still three years older than you and even then it was a full blown emergency."

"You're talking about Amuro Ray, aren't you? That's not the same at all." Alice started working herself down the leg of the mobile suit until Brian took her hand and pushed off, guiding her back down to the deck while Astonage entered the cockpit to move it into the maintenance rack. "When Lieutenant Ray first got into that Gundam he had no idea what he was doing and still managed to shoot down three mobile suits AND fight off Char Aznable single handedly. I've been practicing day and night for the last three weeks just to get good enough to fly with you and Ryo, so I at least know how to fight. Just give me a couple more weeks and I'm sure I can keep up with you!"

Brian smiled. "We'll see, but you still have to wait until you're older."

"Aw c'mon...!"

Naomi stood in the open hatch of the Alex and watched them argue from the distance, finding the humor in the situation despite the anxiety boiling in her chest. She looked on for a few long moments until she noticed someone else watching with her, perched on the waist armor in a pilot's normal suit. "I suppose you're going to make fun of me, right?"

"Not at all. That was a nice move she got you with, there's no shame in it."

Naomi grunted in disapproval. "Nice move my ass. She got lucky."

"That wasn't luck, Lieutenant. She knew exactly what she was doing." He pushed off the waist armor and stepped up into the open hatch next to her. "She timed you."

Naomi nodded, having already come to the same conclusion. "I only gave her a fraction of an opening and she nailed me with it... I've never seen anyone move that fast before. She'd mop the floor with an ordinary pilot."

Ryo nodded in total agreement. "Ordinarily, she's sneaky as hell and always knows what's going on around her. It's interesting that she works the same way in a mobile suit." He watched Brian and Alice disappear into the normal suit locker room and asked his question almost casually, "What do you want with her anyway?"

"Want with her? What do you mean?" She said, trying to brush him off.

"You didn't spend the last three weeks training her just because you were bored. You're using her. Why?"

"You have an active imagination, Lieutenant."

She pushed off the open hatch of the Alex towards the locker room, putting him behind her. Ryo pushed off after her. "Naomi, I'm going out on a limb here..."

"C'mon Izumi..."

"... but I think this has something to do with Project N."

She set down on the deck just in front of the airlock hatch and yanked him down, pulling him in closer to talk to him quietly. For a few moments she wondered just where he might have heard of the Project in the first place, but almost immediately she remembered the spaceport just before the Merrimac Incident where he had been eaves dropping on her conversation with Dyson. Obviously he didn't know much about it himself, but by now he had surely put the puzzle pieces together. "What do you want to know?"

"The truth. I just want to know what's going on. No bullshit this time, just be straight with me." 

Naomi took a slow breath and gave him the only part she cared to give. "Project N is a bio-weapons research program developed for the Federation by a man named Professor Murasame. I won't bore you with the details, let's just say the program developers mainly focus on human experimentation. In the time I was there I saw some things that... I saw enough to convince me that Project N and everyone involved with it have to be destroyed. I've been looking for a shot at Carter for fifteen months, and I think Alice is the best I've got..."

"You've lost me, Lieutenant. What does a little blind kid have to do with bio-weapons?"

She paused for a moment, taking a breath to brace herself for what she had to say next, "It's simple. As long as we have Alice, Carter's weapons can't even touch us. If her abilities were strengthened, if we brought out her true potential as a newtype, Project N would..."

"Wait a second... If I understand you correctly, you talk about biological weapons, what you mean is..." Naomi nodded, and at that moment Ryo's hands started to shake. "Okay... you've obviously been planning this for a while. Where does she fit into it?"

She was about to answer him when the lighting changed and the claxon in the bulkhead next to them started its panicked wailing, then stopped again as Captain Shiden's voice came over the P.A. "All personnel, this Captain Shiden. This vessel has just received an E.A.M. transmission from Jaburo on a coded channel. At exactly 0900 hours colonial standard time we will commence the first tactical strikes against the Side 6 colonies. All decks assume general quarters and standby for mobile suit deployment."

_  
- 1210 hours (CST) -  
_The cruiser looked like it had seen better days. Like the Zanzibar class, this ship had been patched and cobbled together from a variety of scrap sources, some of them salvaged from Zeon vessels, some from Federation hulks, all thrown seamlessly together to form a kind of metallic quilt that seemed quaint in a strange kind of way. Still, Captain Mackenzie disliked the implications of this ship's presence, almost as much as she disliked the three men sitting at the table on the other side of the restaurant looking out the viewport at the same ship. Each of them had a strange grimace on their faces as if they were revolted by the look of the vessel. "Shit, Galen, this is really embarrassing! You knew we were going to Side 6, you should've at least painted the damn thing!" 

Galen shrugged apologetically. "Appoli, we're scumbags. Let's at least look the part."

"Speak for yourself. It so happens you're talking to the world's sexiest ace pilot!"

Appoli chuckled. "What was the name of that girl you met at Von Braun? Paula or something..."

"Paulina." Galen corrected. "Or Paul, depending on the lighting."

Roberto rolled his eyes. "I'm not ashamed of it. He was a beautiful man."

Appoli slapped him on the back and took another gulp of his beer. Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to notice Captain Mackenzie sitting across the table, discretely watching them out of the corner of her eye. "And that, my friend, is a beautiful woman."

"Who, that red-head?"

"The Captain over there. We met her on the way in... Catherine Mackenzie?"

Galen suddenly remembered it himself. "No, Christina." He cleared his throat and hollered across the room before either of his companions could stop him, "Hey Captain Mac, buy you a drink?"

"Some other time, Mr. Galen."

Galen chuckled. "C'mon now, the fighting could start any minute! There might not be another time!"

Chris took a deep breath and left her spot at the table, reluctantly walking across the room and sat across from the three of them, looking at her watch to make sure she had somewhere to be before having to sit with them for too long. It wasn't in her nature to show them just how much she would have preferred to avoid them. "So you three accepted the contract, huh?"

"Sure did. Side 6 paid in advance in case nobody was left to compensate us. Smart move if you ask me."

"Yeah, smart." The waitress came back to the table with a fresh beer bottle and Galen poured a clean glass for her. "What will you do if Side 6 collapses? You know the Titans will come after you as well."

"That's the life of a bounty hunter. We live on the run, it's no change for us. In fact, being outlaws would probably expand our repertoire a bit."

She caught his drift right away. "Piracy, you mean?"

Galen grinned. "Who knows? And by the way, the terms of our contract are to help support YOUR unit in combat, so if things go south just know there's a place for you on the Scarface. Think of it as an emergency escape route."

Chris smiled outwardly and grimaced inwardly. Even if the Scarface survived the battle, and she doubted it would, they wouldn't have an escape route that the Ticonderoga couldn't make on its own. "Thanks Galen, but I'll pass."

"That's your decision." Galen took a sip of his beer and then added casually, "You don't like me much do you?"

Chris shook her head. "I'm not much on mercenaries. I think people should just pick a side and then fight for it."

Galen nodded. "I couldn't agree more. And I did pick a side." Chris stared at him for a moment as he volunteered his explanation, "I'm on MY side. So are Frick and Frack here. Sometimes there's other people on my side, those are the people who pay me, so in this case you are also on my side. As long as I'm on the job, my guns are your guns."

"I'll keep that in mind." Chris started to stand up, but Galen caught her arm.

"Just one question, Captain."

"What?"

"You fought in the One Year War, didn't you?"

Chris hesitated, unsure where he was going with this. "Uh huh."

"And you were stationed here, weren't you?"

"Briefly."

Galen pulled her closer and whispered in her ear, "My brother Mikhail was assigned to a Special Forces unit called Cyclops Team during the war. He was piloting a blue mobile suit very much like the one I use, but his entire unit disappeared during an operation in Libot Colony." He paused a moment and read her body language for reactions. He was internally amused that his information had been so accurate. "I never could get a straight answer as to just what happened to them, but rumor has it he was brought down by an advanced Gundam prototype. Since you were in Libot at the time, I wonder if you might know who the pilot was or where I might find him."

Chris slowly pulled her arm free and took a small step back from the table. "I wouldn't know. Sorry gentlemen, I have to get back to my station."

"Good luck out there." Galen said as she left.

Apolli waited until she was out of earshot and then whispered. "I didn't know your brother fought in the war..."

"He didn't." Galen chuckled and took a sip of his beer. "Truth is, I don't even have a brother."

Roberto leaned back and laughed quietly. "Why do you do that to people?"

"I like to keep folks on their toes, especially beautiful women who might be useful to me..." The lighting in the room changed and the scramble alarm started screaming throughout the colony, almost drowned out by the simultaneous air-raid warnings. Normally, Galen would have counted this one down to another drill and finished his drink, but when he looked out the window he saw a flashing light on the bridge of the Scarface blinking a Morse code message: 'T-I-T-A-N-S'. "Time to go." He said, abandoning the table. "Whatdya say, guys? Let's go earn our paychecks."

__

  
- 1255 hours (CST) -  
Monsha locked his feet down on the catapult and immediately grumbled in annoyance, "What's this bullshit? I thought we were supposed to be the main force?"

Lieutenant Bate sighed in his own personal hell. "Quit complaining, Monsha. Captain Bosque is already in position to attack, so we might as well support him while we're here."

Monsha groaned. "Whose idea was it to pull the Agamemnon to the rear line? We should be on the front...!"

"We ARE on the front! Just because the ship isn't..."

Lieutenant Passaroff cut them off with his own channel, his voice hiding his cynical amusement with Monsha's frustration. "Bate team, scramble and support the Alexandria's group. Braun Team, form a defense line behind Bate's team. Launch immediately."

Monsha cracked his knuckles and pushed down on the foot pedals. "Roger that, moving out." The GM Quell shot down the catapult track and launched into space, followed shortly by the other three suits of the 4th team, then Lieutenant Braun's GM Quells behind them.

Lieutenant Larson, as usual, was the last to board the catapult, but for some strange reason she felt more uneasy than ever before. "Major Cunningham, you'll be replacing me as liaison to the Marquis fleet after this mission. If you get killed and strand me on this damn ship without a replacement, I will have no choice but to piss on your grave."

Dieter chuckled and locked his Hizack onto the catapult. "I'll keep that in mind." Dieter launched first out of the ship, and Gwen followed just behind him, keeping her thrust a bit lower than usual to stay out from in front of him. She couldn't understand why, but for some reason she didn't want to turn her back on Dieter Cunningham for any period of time.

The two ships from the Marquis fleet were now just behind the Alexandria, supporting the ship's rear defense from attack by the main defensive push of the Riah forces. She was amused to see the battle had already begun, and even more amused to find that the two combatants seemed to be more or less evenly matched. The Titans mobile suits were far more powerful, but Side 6's pilots seemed far more skilled. "Maybe this won't be the slaughter we all thought it would be. Maybe I AM routing for the wrong team..."

Berriga colony was just up ahead, with the mobile suit and ball defenses swarming around it, battling like angry bees around a hive. The boxy, simply looking Hercules mobile suits were flying with their backs to the colony, firing in massed barrages at the encroaching GMs and GM Quels from the Titans units. Two GMs double teamed a single Hercules with its back to the bay block, but the cornered mobile suit fired off two quick shots from its rifle into the chest of the first before the other scored a direct hit with a bazooka round. As Gwen came closer she saw the Alexandria and the three Salamis cruisers with it, blasting away with mega particle cannons at the two civilian ships with bolted-on beam cannons on their sides. Alexandria scored a direct hit, and one of the ships immediately flew apart in a massive explosion.

Captain Bosque was grinning despite the growing intensity of the battle. Little by little the mobile suit battle was breaking down into an all-out brawl, but with every second the battle moved closer to their target colony. Berriga was the home port of what passed for Riah's naval fleet, a dozen civilian warships modified very imaginatively into third-rate combat vessels. "Converge main cannons onto the spaceport and maintain barrage for thirty seconds."

Alexandria's cannons changed targets and all fired at once, striking the number two space gate of the bay and blowing it wide open. A squad of Hercules saw the flash and closed in to attack the ship, but Lieutenant Bate spotted them on the way in and blindsided the leader with his machinegun before it even got close. The other four turned and fired in his direction, apparently not even seeing Monsha and Adel as they locked on to attack them from behind. In a hail of gunfire all four of them took damages, two of which pulled out with holes in the armor and the other two drifted in space until their reactors cooked off. "These new mobile suits aren't so hot after all. I wonder what all the fuss was about."

Monsha reloaded his machinegun and scanned around for a new target. He spotted three enemies rising out of the bay block, RB-79s with their cannons already aimed his way. "Look at those dumbass spacenoids trying to step it up in those things! Now that takes Balls!" He laughed aloud at his own pun and locked his rifle onto the first of three.

His computer warned him too late to help, and a single bazooka round punched through his back pack and exploded underneath his armor. The mobile suit drifted powerless in space, and Monsha sprung the hatch and leapt to safety just as another bazooka round split the GM in half. Duncan laughed as he picked another target, and fired another bazooka shell in Adel's direction just as he turned around to engage. This time the shot missed, and Duncan shot past him and sped out of range while he thought of what to do next. "Moron!"

"The Titans are as predictable as the Feddies. I guess Earthnoids are all alike." Vanessa peaked out from behind the colony mirror again, finally confident enough that her target was in range. The Salamis cruiser just in front of the Alexandria was ripe for the picking. "Red Rifle to all units, fire in the hole!" All of the Hercules and Ball pilots responded right away, immediately clearing her firing path as her beam cannon powered up. When the cannon fired, the recoil actually slammed the Rickdom back a few meters, but the beam went straight to its target as accurate as always.

Captain Bosque saw a flash out of the corner of his eye and looked over just in time to see the massive mega-particle beam slam into the hull of the New Guinea just forward of the main bridge. The beam punched through the keel of the ship, and a split second later a gigantic explosion split the ship in two and sent both halves tumbling off in different directions. "DAMN! Gunnery, set your targets to the sky pannels! Blow those shudders wide open!"

Everyone in the room turned slowly and looked at him. "Captain, if we blow the shudders the colony will decompress...!"

"I didn't ask your opinion! Follow my orders immediately!"

Captain Bosque's weapons officer swallowed hard and reset the primary target in fire control. 

The next barrage from the Alexandria was a direct hit, all four main guns and the two from both of the remaining cruisers raking down the sides of the colony, melting and smashing the transparent panels in the side of the cylinder. Everyone in the battle field stopped whatever they were doing and watched with a sudden rush of horror, Titans and Riah forces alike. The series of explosions that blossomed along the one side of the colony expanded in a tremendous fireball from the sudden massive oxygen release, scattering debris into open space from inside the colony itself. The shockwaves from the blast blew out an entire section of the panel, and the rush of air from the colony suddenly intensified.

Lieutenant Larson's heart stopped beating for half a minute as she came to terms with what she was now looking at. "My god... was that... was than an accident?"

"They've been evacuating civilians since before we crossed the border. The only ones left will be a few government officials and some soldiers." Dieter almost sounded bored by all of this, like the destruction of the colony was some kind of pitiful distraction from things that were really important. "Pay attention, Larson. In case you haven't noticed, we ARE fighting a battle, here."

Once again, Gwen found herself wondering if Dieter's past experience hadn't completely destroyed his sanity, but at this point there was another major concern to deal with. She fired her throttles to full, charging through the battlefield as the fighting resumed from its moment of pause and homed in on the targets she'd seen before. Both of them recognized her, and in a flash she found herself standing next to the now-wrecked bay block face to face with a pair of Rickdom Sniper Customs. "You two! What the hell were you thinking anyway?! Do you have any idea how much trouble we'll be in if the Titans...!"

Duncan took a step forward and pointed his finger over her head at the battle around them. "The Titans can go to hell! Riah's done nothing but follow the Federation's own laws and THIS is how the Titans repay them! You think we can negotiate with people like that?!"

"They need us! The Titans aren't strong enough to police the Earth Sphere on their own and they need strong allies with a finger on the pulse of the spacenoids! They need us to...!"

"That's bullshit and you know it! The Titans will turn on us the instant it serves their purpose and just use whatever they can get from us! They're developing their own newtype weapons, what more proof do you need?!"

Gwen looked over her shoulder at the Alexandria as it fired another barrage into the colony, stripping off another panel of the colony and this time knocking off an entire mirror panel with it. She could already feel the colony's rotation starting to change. "Jamitov gave us his word! He gave us his sworn promise that the Green Noa-II would be free to self govern! You're not making this easy for us!"

Vanessa changed out the gigantic energy capacitor on the beam cannon and raised it to fire again, this time aiming it right at Gwen's head. "Earthnoid promises aint worth a damn! Go ahead and do what you have to, and we'll do what WE have to!" She raised the beam cannon two degrees charged it up and fired it once again. The beam caught a Titans GM completely off guard and vaporized it instantly, but at the same time the squad leader of the main Hercules team fired three flares over his head, a general retreat signal. "Go back to the Admiral and tell that damn fool to stop living in a dream world!" Duncan and Vanessa pushed off the colony and joined the other retreating forces. Larson hung there in space somewhat stupefied, not noticing Major Cunningham's mobile suit a hundred meters behind her watching the entire scene passively.

  
_- 1245 hours (CST) -_  
Acheron colony's garrison was on full alert even before the Federation fleet entered the area. Everyone knew that the twin defense force garrisons at Libot and Acheron would be primary targets once the fighting started. At the moment of the first aggressive action by the Titans, the colony defenses swung into action immediately, opening fire on the Federation base in Libot colony while reinforcements came to defend the twin colonies from the attack they knew would come soon.

The three ships of the defense force, all modified from old civilian fuel tankers took up a defensive position just behind the colonies as the recon teams reported the approaching attackers. The Ticonderoga, a the largest of the three, launched all nine of its mobile suits from the two modified cargo holds to join the other fifteen mobile suits already forming their defense line. Captain Mackenzie launched from Libot's bay block and rejoined the other five mobile suits of her team as her first officer brought her up to speed on the radio. "Strike teams in Libot report the Federation garrison's offering heavy resistance but progress is being made. We'll have the base secured within the hour."

"And the incoming hostiles?"

"It's an assault carrier with a full escort, three cruisers with mobile suits. It'll be in firing range in about ten minutes, and the mobile suits have already launched."

"How many?"

"Six to ten mobile suits in two separate groups."

Chris raised a brow. "Ten suits? That's not very many..." With the numbers and types of ships approaching it was obvious that this was just the first wave. The second would probably launch immediately after this, and then the Feddies would tag-team the colony until the defenders were too exhausted to fight. "We have to push them back on the first wave. 4th and 7th team, take care of that first group above us. 2nd team, follow us to intercept that group down below."

As soon as the Hercules squads started to move, Lucy's motion sensors picked them up and locked on. "Targets sighted, one minute to firing range."

Naomi scanned ahead in that direction and identified her targets. "Same models from Afghanistan. They don't look like much, but the brass at Jaburo thought they were pretty impressive." The targets started moving towards them, closing the range more quickly and coming into firing range. One group moved below against Mike and Eric's group, leaving Naomi to engage the high road with Lucy and her three GMs. "There's twelve of them. Here we go..." The leader's suit opened fire as it came into range, but from that distance it was hitting nothing but empty space.

Lucy increased power to her thrusters and came in closer, calmly cycled to one target and locked on. The Hercules didn't seem to notice her approaching, even as a burst from her arm gatlings ripped through its torso and burst one of its fuel tanks. Two of his companions turned and fired, Lucy aimed and fired back; the beam struck the suit just below the cockpit and the suit scattered into space on a fireball. "Two down..."

"I got the next one!" Naomi's computer locked on and the crosshairs centered on another suit. This time the pilot was ready for her; her first shot was a bit too low, and he sidestepped the next one by a margin of a few feet. Two more shots missed, but when she got closer she put one beam straight through the cockpit and left it hanging dead in space. "They're not bad. About Zaku performance, maybe more..."

Two of the GMs behind her picked out a single suit and opened fire with beam guns. One clipped a piece of the suit's leg and knocked it into a spin, the other put the deathblow into it with two short bursts. Three others flew through the explosion and opened fire with their machineguns, catching both off guard in a burst of fire. One GM was destroyed instantly, the other got off a few quick shots before it was ripped apart by the flurry of shells. The Riah suits hesitated for just a moment, and in that split second both of the Gundams blindsided them with a blast from their beam rifle while the remaining GM finished off the third.

Naomi spun around again and raised her shield just in time to block several rifle shells from two other suits. "Still a few more of them...!"

Lucy dodged a few rounds and picked another out of the five remaining suits. "Naomi, Garry, we're going in. Keep advancing to the colony."

"Roger."

Mike's team had made slower progress; one of the GMs was gone and another had already been damaged. The ten mobile suits engaging them were moving with a precision and a confidence even Mike could identify as the work of veteran or at least very well trained pilots. "Swanson, these guys are no amateurs! Be careful here..."

"Quit pep-talkin, Mike! I can handle this!" Eric pushed forward under full thrust and locked onto one target, then fired a long burst from his arm gatlings as he closed in. The pilot avoided his line of fire, but Eric kept the trigger down and walked the crosshairs up to the fleeing suit until finally his shells scored a hit. The mobile suit spun off in flames, but before he could even give a shout of triumph his computer warned of an attack from behind. He dodged to one side as the attacker rushed past with a beam saber in hand, but when he came around again he saw a machine he couldn't identify coming around for another pass. "Wha... that looks like a Zeon model!"

Mike scanned the suit and the computer identified it right away. "Confirmed MS-18E Kaempher Custom. They didn't make too many of those..."

"What's it doing here...?" The Kamepher came around again, this time stowing the beam saber and drawing one of its bazookas from storage. Eric barely had time to blink before it closed in again, and only by a luck reflex did he move aside before the bazooka round blew his head off. "Christ that thing's fast!"

"No kidding... Swanson, behind you!"

Eric spun around and fired blindly with the beam rifle, Chris dodged left and fired back. The shell hit its mark; the Gundam's right hand exploded and the beam rifle spun uselessly off into space. Chris fired two more shots, both of which exploded against his chest plate but made little more than an ugly dent in the armor. The Gundam backpedaled in space and popped open its arm gatlings, but Chris was already moving away before he could pull the trigger. "They've upgraded it! Not bad..." She caught a flash out of the corner of her eye and turned her head just in time to see two of her mobile suits exploded side by side, both racked by a burst from Mike's arm gatlings. Two others returned fire on the Gundam, but diverting their attention made them easy pray and both were picked off by beam guns from the GMs behind it. "Dammit! Galen, take out that Gundam!"

"Roger! Watch me work, Chris! This is why they hire people like me!" The Kaempher lined up for a high speed pass of the Gundam, and Galen wasn't at all surprised when Mike turned towards him and fired a few quick bursts over his head, though for a few moments he was deeply impressed with how quickly it moved to counter him. "Pilot's quick but he's no newtype..." Appoli and Roberto moved in behind him as he dove in, and Galen made his move. He picked his targets and picked out the two small rocket launchers on his waist armor, aimed and fired them both without changing course at all. The Gundam raised its shield to block, realizing too late that it was not the target of the attack.

Both GMs were hit dead on, both shattered by the warheads and scattered into space like so much garbage. Mike's beam rifle returned fire and again Galen dodged completely as he charged straight in towards it... and then he caught an explosion from behind him and spun around in surprise. Roberto's Rickdom was tumbling in space with a ball of fire where its legs had been destroyed by the Gundam behind it. Appoli made a few small moves to avoid its arm gatling, and Galen reversed his course on a dime. "Appoli, take the other one!"

The Rickdom passed him in the opposite direction and moved in to attack Mike's suit while Galen went after Eric. Two Hercules behind him put a few shots across his face and Eric turned for the briefest moment and fired a short burst to keep them at a distance. But when he turned back it was too late to counter attack, and this time Galen didn't bother with his beam saber; the Kaempher reached behind its back and uncoiled its chain mine, and with a wave of its arm whipped the tip of it against the Gundam's head. The rest of it snaked around his armor, locked down to the end and armed themselves. Galen flipped the switch on his consol and all fifteen bombs in the chain mine detonated at once.

Mike heard Eric scream on the radio, and just that one distraction left him open to Appoli's attack. The Rickdom fired a single bazooka shell as it closed in and Mike raised his shield to counter, but when the shell exploded it tore straight through the shield and took most of his left arm with it. But the sudden burst of debris around him covered his next move, and Mike fired one last lucky shot off his beam rifle as the Rickdom shot past him.

Appoli felt the impact and then his monitors faded to black, replaced a few seconds later by a grainy image from his backup cameras. "Shit! Galen, my main camera's malfunctioning!"

Galen took a look in his direction and laughed out loud. "Camera nothing! He blew your head off!"

"My head?! AW MAN...!"

"Hey, cut the chatter people! Check your ammo, their second wave could come at any time!" Chris took one moment to look around and felt a rush of anxiety. She was reduced to six mobile suits, all of them low on ammo, and even Galen was down one pilot from battle damages. Even worse, she looked back towards Libot and saw that the other team had already penetrated and the battle was now raging on and around the colony itself. And then the final insult: Chris's combat computer picked up a heat source from the distance, and she turned her head just in time to see a barrage of mega particle cannons reach out from the distance, crossing through space to impact directly on Libot's main bay block at the West end. A series of explosions opened up the colony walls and secondary explosions began bubbling out from within the docking hatches. "This is Captain Mackenzie to all units, abort mission! Fall back to carriers and retreat immediately! I repeat, fall back to carriers and retreat!"

Galen sounded confused on the radio, but even he could understand the reason for it. He grabbed Robert's suit by the hand and dragged it behind him, and by remarkable coincidence, when he checked his rear display, he spotted one of the Gundams doing the same with its heavily damaged comrade. The Gundam looked like it was barely holding together, in fact just the stress of being dragged by his companion was too much for it and bits and pieces of it began to break off and fall away into space. "Looks like I win, Gundam. Until next time..." Galen turned his back to them and returned to the already-retreating Scarface, firing as it retreated at the Tarawa and the three Salamis cruisers.

Captain Black signaled them as Galen came in for a landing, "To all friendly forces, enemy attacks were more coordinated than we thought. The defense forces at Berriga and Franchesca have been completely overrun and we've lost contact with our advanced forces sent to slow their advance. Defense Headquarters wants all forces to regroup at Londenium and buy some time for the evacuees."

Galen brought his suit to a stop in the Scarface's airlock and took a few deep breaths. "I wonder if this is more important than just a contract?"


	12. Chapter 11: The Littlest Ace

Throughout history, unspeakable atrocities have been committed against women and children as a means to attack the men who care for them. Ironically, the attackers are quick to forget that women and children often very bad tempers and very devious minds.   
-- Liann Yashima

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Littlest Ace**

__

- March 1, UC 0084 -  
-1555 hours (CST) -  
All three of the Tarawa's mega particle cannons rose a few degrees above the bow and each fired two short blasts, both striking the modified freighter in front of the bay block through the main hull. The ship got off one last shot from its mega particle cannons before exploded, clearing a path for the landing craft from the troop transport a hundred miles behind the Tarawa's battle group. With the loss of this last ship the defending mecha started to cease fire a few at a time, and every minute the skies of the colony grew more and more quiet. Now it was time to move on; Captain Shiden ordered the battle group to set course for Riah's final defense line at Londenium Colony.

The Tarawa's MS deck was wide open and depressurized, and would remain so probably for the duration of the battle. Naomi's Gundam, low on fuel and out of ammunition from its second sortie of the day, landed on the starboard deck and moved the Gundam straight to its station. Once stopped, the Lieutenant threw the hatch open and dove straight out for Eric's mobile suit sprawled out next to the rear bulkhead. The machine looked like it had just clawed its way through mobile suit hell, with one arm and leg completely gone and most of the armor stripped away. The head of the mobile suit was partially collapsed, and its sensor systems were dangling from their wires elsewhere in the hangar as Astonage and his men worked to salvage what they could for use in the other machines. But most of the work was being done on the cockpit itself; Astonage had finally moved a Ball into the hangar and was hard at work prying away what was left of the chest plate to get at whatever was left of Lieutenant Swanson.

Chief Watson met her halfway to the suit and stopped her from getting closer with just a wave of his hand. "It's dangerous, Lieutenant. Possible fire hazard."

"Is he alive?"

"We don't know yet. The system's smashed beyond repair, we don't even have radio contact."

"You try the suit radio?"

"Tried, but he could be unconscious. The concussion from that chain mine crushed the cockpit around him, so it's really just a question of how badly is he hurt."

The Ball's clawed hands managed to peel away another section of armor and the next one moved under it to pry up the plating even more. "Keep me informed," she said, pushing off the deck back towards her mobile suit.

"Where will you be?"

"Alex needs maintenance. The electrical system's all screwed up."

Chief Watson pushed off and followed her with a worried expression. "Electrical system? What's the trouble?"

"He's moving strangely. There's a lot of looseness in the arms after..."

"... Quick movements? Reflexes? Bursts of speed?" Naomi nodded and Chief Watson felt his stomach grumble. "I was afraid of that." He passed her on the way to the suit and pulled himself into the open hatch before she entered. "Get some rest, Lieutenant. I'll take care of everything."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright then..." She drifted past the mobile suit and kept on to the far bulkhead, sought out the nearest airlock and closed the hatch behind her. _I keep remembering what Kelly said. They're so high maintenance it must cost a fortune just to keep ONE of them running._ She pressurized the airlock and took the helmet off her pilot suit, taking in a full lung of Tarawa's re-circulated atmosphere, _Alex is overdue for an upgrade anyway._

She headed straight for the ship's gravity bloc and the mess hall down below where the second team was standing by, Lieutenant Izumi's team with the heavier mobile suits all sitting around the pilot's table in a total atmosphere of relaxation. Lucy was with Mike in the infirmary, which left Naomi alone with the second team for the time being. She took a seat across from Ryo and next to Brian and tipped back lazily in her chair.

Brian was the first to notice her, and even then it took him almost a minute. "How'd it go, Lieutenant?"

"We hit some heavy resistance. Mike and Eric are out of the fight, and Lucy's left gatling is damaged. We accounted for sixteen enemies shot down at the cost of six mobile suits just in the first wave."

Everyone around the table shook their heads in disgust. Brian picked up a coffee mug on the table and turned it in his hands. "We had an easier time with the defenses, probably because the mobile suits had already pulled out. No losses and ten pods shot down. And by the way, we secured the garrison in Libot and they're sending six GM Commandos to support the offensive. They can make up for the lost GMs, at least."

"Good to know, but you guys will be the first wave on the next set. Their mobile suits may not be much, but some of them are flown by veteran pilots. Make sure you take them seriously or you could get into real trouble." Everyone at the table nodded in agreement and went back to the nothing they'd been doing before she arrived. Naomi looked at each of them one at a time and looked for any sign of fear or anxiety. She found it in the last place she'd expected to find it, "What's your story, Ricardo?"

"Sir?"

"You have a problem I should be aware of?"

"No, sir."

She leaned forward a bit and her voice deepened. "You've never been afraid of anything in your life, Rico. What's got you so nervous all of a sudden?"

He hesitated to answer, but with her staring him down there didn't seem to be another choice. "You, Sir."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." He sighed and leaned back a bit more. "Listen, Lieutenant, you and I kinda got off on the wrong foot..."

Naomi raised a brow. "That's putting it mildly."

"Yeah, I know. And you probably don't care to hear this anyway, but I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for what I did to you and I feel like a real bastard."

Naomi blinked a few times in surprise with her jaw hanging slack in her face. If she could only see a flock of pigs flying around the room she'd have a better idea of what was going on. "Y-You're apologizing...?"

"Yeah. I know how stupid that's gonna sound considering what... looks, I just wish I could make things right again and I'm truly sorry for what happened."

As usual, no one had noticed her arrival, but this conversation had made Alice more curious than ever and she made herself noticed from the suddenly occupied seat next to Naomi. "What DID happen?"

Rico got over the initial shock of her appearing out of thin air and answered quickly, "It's nothing, really."

"Then what are you apologizing for?"

Lieutenant Dyson started thinking of ways to dodge, but he knew Alice well enough to know that she wouldn't be asking the question unless she had a pretty good idea of what the answer was. "I'll tell you later, okay?"

Alice stomped her foot in anger. "You guys always say that! It's always, 'tell you later, ask again later, not a good time Alice...' just because I can't see doesn't mean I'm some kind of retard!"

Naomi grabbed her hand and pulled her up into a chair, "Okay, I'm sorry, it's just a sensitive subject and I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Where have I heard that bef...?" Something like a wave crashed against the side of Alice's head, a sudden onset of pressure in her brain resonating in her eardrums and pulsing in rhythm like a strange heartbeat. In her own sightless world a strange bright object started to appear in the distance, but this time she didn't even have to wait to know what it was. "Ah... ah... I gotta go!" Everyone at the table watched her spring out of her chair and scramble across the room, tripping over chairs and people towards the door. Brian shouted a warning to her just a bit too late and she smacked face first into the bulkhead, but got right back to her feet and groped her way along to find the door. "I'll be back later! This is an emergency!"

Brian and Ryo watched her leave, then turned and looked at each other in confusion. "What's with her?"

"Maybe she started her period?" Chase muttered under his breath.

Naomi shot him a look of disgust. "That's not funny."

Alice made it out of the gravity bloc and halfway down the corridor on her own, using the vibrations in the hull from Kelly's frantic work at removing the armor plating from Eric's Gundam. One final lurch as the last bolts separated gave her a direction, and in under a minute she made her way to the airlock hatch of the port side mobile suit deck.

Kelly finished the reloading of the Mudrock's cannons and checked the power status on the beam rifle. Everything was ready, and fueling was just about complete. "There you are big guy. All ready for another battle." He started lowering the lift to run a final maintenance check when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye, turned around just in time to see Alice drifting past him in a pilot's normal suit. "Alice, what are you doing here? The ship is at general quarters!"

"Screw that! Enemies are nearby!" Alice flailed her arms out desperately and finally caught a handhold on the side of the cockpit, pulled herself in and slipped inside.

"Enemies?" Kelly grabbed her arm and pulled her partly out of the cockpit. "What enemies? What are you talking about?"

"It's that sniper again and the other one... they always work in pairs, you know? They're both out there somewhere, they're looking for us!"

"So what?"

Alice kicked Kelly in the chest and slipped back into the cockpit, closing the hatch behind her and locking him out. "If I don't stop them, they'll kill more people! I'm the only one who can kill that pilot!"

"What are you talking about?! Don't be stu...!"

The scramble alarm sounded in every corridor and passageway of the ship, echoed in the radio headsets of the mechanics and any crewmen in depressurized parts of the ship. Ryo's team burst up from their seats at the mess hall and sprinted to elevators to get to their mobile suits while bridge crew and off duty officers braced for what they hoped would be the final operation of the day. 

Captain Shiden looked at the radar board, hardly able to believe his eyes. Aside from the group of enemies moving to attack them from their right flank, Londenium's defense line was wide open to attack. "Second Team, we have incoming hostiles up ahead, scramble and intercept them immediately. First Team, launch immediately and proceed to Londenium!"

Lieutenant Holland was surprised to see one of the mobile suits already standing by for launch. "He's quick... 807, targets inbound off the port quarter, range six hundred and closing fast. Sensors confirm six to ten mobile suits and several fighter units. Try to hold them off until the rest of the team gets launched."

The Mudrock stepped forward and locked its feet into the catapult, then slid into position to launch into space. Alice took a few deep breaths and squeezed the controls. "Roger that. Alice, launching in Mudrock!"

Lieutenant Holland tapped his headset in confusion. "What the hell? Was that just...?" He turned forward just in time to see the Mudrock shoot out of the MS deck like a bullet from a gun, turn slightly and disappear out into space to intercept the enemy suits. "Captain, I think our color guard's taking her duties a little too seriously..."

  
_-2255 hours (MTNA) -  
_Ever since the beginning of this conflict, the Trafalgar had been the darling of Earthnoid media. The pilots became celebrities almost overnight, their names became household by now, and more than a few toy companies had even hired sculptors to design action figures in their likeness, along with to-scale mobile suit action figures for the fans to stage their battles. When the first shots of the fleet action were fired, all cameras everywhere focused on the Trafalgar's battlegroup as it began its attack against Bennay colony and the floating space dock nearby. At least six news ships from four different networks ran their live broadcast, with a few correspondents imbedded onboard the carrier itself to coordinate it all. Most watching on Earth were on the edge of their seats at the chaos on their TV screens, but those few viewers with experience in the battlefield took in different details. 

Even from the shaky video on the news ship, she could tell the Riah forces were all highly experienced soldiers by any standards. Their mobile suits weren't the most advanced machines in the world, but the men behind the controls made them look highly impressive. She found herself staring at the screen for a few moments before a large explosion filled most of the frame and the camera angle changed, just in time to catch the fiery death of a Federation mobile suit. "This is something else...!" The reporter shouted off screen, "I don't even... I looks like one of the Trafalgar's mobile suits has taken a direct hit! It happened so fast I didn't..." He paused for a long moment, listening to a mumble somewhere off camera and then back to his microphone, "... they're telling me that machine was Lieutenant Marist's suit. The explosions here are caused by the Minovsky fusion reactors that power them. When those reactors are breached, they make a pretty big explosion. I hope Marist had time to eject." Another series of explosions and the camera angle changed, this time showing a half dozen Riah mobile suits exchanging fire with three of the Trafalgar's pilots. "These MS-117 Galbaldy's are state of the art technology, but like any mobile suit they can only take too much damage... those three red ones are outnumbered but putting up a good fight. There's no telling how this could turn out, the firefight is extremely intense..." Sayla couldn't help but notice the voice sounded familiar somehow, and the way he spoke he seemed very familiar with the subject he was covering right now. He sounded excited, but none of this seemed to disturb him in the slightest. "It may not look like it, but this battle's definitely working to the Federation's favor. The Riah suits are offering heavy resistance but the Feddies are pounding them with everything they've got..."

The bathroom door opened at last and Amuro stretched his shoulders back as he walked into the room. He didn't notice the TV at first, just sat down on the bed next to her and kissed her on the cheek. When she didn't notice him, he first became annoyed, then curious at what it was that had her attention. "C'mon, Sayla, you can't just watch the news all day."

"Something finally happened." She said blankly, still staring zombie-like at the screen.

"Another incident?"

"It's a fleet action. The shooting started a couple hours ago."

"Really?" Amuro watched more closely now and looked for anything of interest. Nothing kept his attention for very long, only the usual chaos of explosions and beams shooting back and forth between mobile suits and warships. As they watched, a pair of massive explosions ripped open the side of one of the cruisers, but from the look of it he knew there was little to worry about. By now he had lost interest in the TV broadcast, and now his attention became more and more focused on the tease of cleavage behind her bath towel. "C'mon, Sayla, I'm sick of this stuff. Let's do something else."

"Just a minute, I'm watching this."

"What for?"

"I find it very interesting."

Amuro growled. "What's so interesting? We've been through it all ourselves, remember? Why watch it on TV?"

"I've never seen it on TV before. It's interesting to see what war is like to a civilian."

Fed up with it, Amuro grabbed the remote and muted the volume on the TV. "No more TV. We came here to have a good time, remember?" He leaned over and kissed the back of her neck, then reached up and started rubbing her shoulders. "Don't you want to have a good time?"

Sayla felt that familiar tingling in the back of her spine. "Yeah, I do..." She relaxed a little bit and felt her body grow a little warmer. All of her curiosity about the Side 6 Campaign gave ground to her desires. She closed her eyes and felt herself fall into his arms... then opened them again as the lighting on the TV flashed suddenly. 

She snatched up the remote and turned on the volume again to hear the reporter's frantic rambling, "... believe what I'm seeing! There's been a large explosion here...the Trafalgar's taken a direct hit! There's... there's flames shooting out of the engine pod and the largest section of the hull! I didn't see what hit them...!" This time even Amuro had his full attention as the Pegasus class carrier twisted in space, burning from three massive gaps in the hull. One red mobile suit shot through the frame, shooting off its beam rifle at another Riah suit somewhere offscreen. "That's Ensign Layla's machine! She's fighting with that enemy pilot who hit the Trafalgar... another explosion! A big one! I can't believe what I..."

One final blast ripped open the bottom of the carrier and the ship started to fall behind the cruisers as it tore itself apart from the inside out. In a few more moments, there wouldn't be anything left of the carrier to salvage at all. "God almighty... for those of you who just tuned in, this is Kai Shiden reporting from the cruiser Bosnia in combat near Bunch 3 in Side 6. The Riah forces re getting pounded and they seem to be retreating, but the assault carrier Trafalgar is in serious trouble... man, I hope the crew evacuates in time."

Amuro groaned again and scooted off the top of the bed. "You'll be watching this all night, won't you?"

Sayla turned her head without looking away and nodded slightly.

"That's what I thought." He pulled up the covers and slipped into the bed, stacking the extra pillow under his neck. "Lemme know what I missed, okay?"

"I already know what you missed, Amuro." She mumbled as he pulled the covers over his head. "The point."

  
_-1612 hours (CST) -  
_The Psycommu interface showed her a total of seven targets and indicated to her that they were moving towards her very quickly. The experience was very strange, instantly knowing things without having to hear or feel them, a steady input of information directly into her brain. The only thing the interface couldn't show her was the exact location of her primary target, the crimson Rickdom piloted by none other than Duncan Marquis.

The rest of the mobile suit teams were just launching behind her now and were catching up quickly, but Alice didn't have time to wait for support. If Duncan and his sniper got into range, the Tarawa wouldn't survive very long. "Okay, there's seven of them, maybe more behind... I can find them, no problem." She came into range of the first group, two Hercules types with rifles and a third shouldering a very large bazooka. The first two locked on and opened fire, while the third waited until he was closer to aim the bazooka. Alice dodged their rifle fire from the distance and armed the beam rifle. _This isn't some paintball fight with Naomi, this is a real battle. I hope I can do this right..._ She picked one out of the three and locked the beam rifle. The mobile suit fired three more shots in her direction, Alice fired four in return. The fourth shot scored a direct hit on the cockpit hatch, blowing the suit's chest wide open and sending it spinning into space in flames. _That's one..._ She locked onto the next and fired another four blasts. The suit dodged the first two, but the third clipped off one of its legs and the fourth hit it dead center and destroyed it instantly. _That's two..._

The third one moved far above her and fired down with its bazooka. Alice reversed thrust and rolled straight back to avoid the rocket, but before she could fire back the enemy suit exploded from another beam off in the distance. Ryo's Gundam was the first to join her in the battlefield and already he was taking a position to defend her. "Alice, I'll cover you! Fall back!"

"I can't let the sniper get any closer to the ship! Fall forward!" 

Mudrock accelerated again and passed him, and now Ryo found himself scrambling to keep up. "Sniper? The one that attacked us before? You can sense him, can't you?"

"Yeah. He's out here somewhere..." Two more mobile suits rose up to attack them from the front, with at least three more rising up behind them, all flying with their backs to Londenium colony in the distance. "Ryo, I think we're hitting their first defense line. There's a lot more of them coming."

His sensors spotted a few more mobile suits closing in just behind these ones and now he nodded in agreement. "This could get ugly. You better head back to the ship..."

"I told you, we don't have time! I have to find that sniper!"

Two mobile suits opened fire at once with rifles. Alice dodged one, blocked the other with her shield and then fired off three quick shots with her beam rifle. The shots were close but all of them missed, and the two suits answered back with everything they had. Ryo moved closer to one of them and sprayed it with his arm gatling, but the other reacted quickly and put some distance between them. "Alice, that power cell won't last forever! Take it easy!"

"I'M TRYING!" She locked on again and fired another four-round blast, scoring at hit with the last shot that left the machine adrift with a hole under the cockpit. She took a moment to catch her breath, then sensed an attack from behind her and dodged left just in time to avoid it. A GM Commando painted in Riah Forces colors fired blast after blast with its beam gun, and Alice dodged every shot like a fly before setting up her aim again and shooting back a series of blasts. The GM darted back and forth as well, dodging five shots one after another before the sixth one burned into its chest just above its main radiator. The pilot ejected from the mobile suit just before it exploded, and Alice discarded the now-empty energy cap from the rifle as she scanned for another target. _That's four!_

Ryo spotted another GM approaching, aimed carefully and put one beam through its head before it even knew he was there. "She's unreal! Her first time out and she gets four kills...?!" Ryo sensed it finally, a rising pressure from somewhere out in space that seemed to intensify as it got closer. He was surprised to find that he recognized this feeling. Far behind them, Rico and Chase noticed the same feeling as they moved to join the battle, as did Brian in his core fighter and Naomi and Lucy not far away in their mobile suits. Suddenly Ryo was very glad Alice was out here with him. "Alice, you feel that?"

"I feel it."

"Can you pinpoint it?"

"I... I don't know..."

"Concentrate! Try to zero in on it!"

She shut out the ghost world of the psycommu interface and focused in on the strange light she sensed before. At first it was the usual nothingness that was always there, but after a moment... "That way!" She pointed the mobile suit in the right direction and started moving towards it. As soon as she pointed she sensed a second energy just behind it, felt it suddenly explode with radiance in a spirit of hatred... She dodged left half a heartbeat before Vanessa's beam cannon would have split her in two. "That's her alright!"

Ryo's sensors finally spotted them and started calculating range. "There's two of them... Chase, Rico, start working through their main defense line. We'll handle that sniper."

Chase and Rico moved forward leading their force of six GMs in formation. The next line of targets was interesting to see; a mix of a dozen FFS-3 Sablefish fighters and RB-79 Balls closing at full thrust with weapons ready. Londenium colony wasn't much farther behind them, and beyond that there didn't seem to be much of a defense line at all except for what was waiting very close to the colony. Even Chase could see it was a stalling tactic. "If I didn't know better, I'd say this battle was already over..."

  
_-1616 hours (CST) -  
_Naomi's second wave was just now coming into range of the second defense line as they approached the colony. The lights of battle were already blazing here, explosions and beams crisscrossing from cannons and missiles large and small. The Trafalgar's Galbaldy unit was just arriving at the same time, along with another wave of Titans mobile suits from the other side of the colony. It gave her confidence just to see them all on the same page for once. "Tarawa strike group, we're in the zone! Let's hit em hard and fast!"

Lucy looked over the battlefield briefly and gave the call, "GM teams, split up and engage enemy mobile suits on the way in. Our primary targets are those modified transport vessels. Aim for the big guns bolted onto the hull."

The GM team separated and moved among the enemy, opening fire as soon as they were in range. Lucy and Naomi both started picking targets and their beam rifles went into action in a blaze of energy.

The cruiser Scarface was in the middle of the chaos when the reinforcements arrived, all five of its mega particle guns firing in nearly every direction at every target in sight. Three Titans GMs closed in and opened fire on the old Musai, beam guns pelting the hull from its starboard side and ripping out chunks of its armor, but the explosions merely stripped away the outer layers and left the ship mostly intact. Appoli darted out from behind the cruiser and put a bazooka round into the chest of the lead suit, leaving the other two to break off and fall back away from the ship.

Captain Black laughed as the damage report scrolled on his screen. "You still think that ablative armor was a bad idea?"

The MS deck opened and Galen's Kaempfer moved back out of the deck. "I never said it was a bad idea, I just said it was expensive as all hell!"

"Yeah, but it works."

"Who cares? It only works ONCE!" Galen moved away from the ship and scanned around, finally spotting Chris's mobile suit a few hundred meters below, trading rifle fire with a pair of Galbaldys. "Shotgun..." He locked onto the first one and fired as he got close. The blast shredded the suit from behind and left it burning in space, and Galen blasted the other with his bazooka as it turned around to face him. "You alright, Mackenzie?"

"Thank you for that." Chris's computer whistled again and she spun around as three GM Commandos came into range. She didn't wait for them to come into range; she aimed a little bit ahead of the suit and fired one shot from the rifle. The bullet landed right where it needed to, through the torso right next to the cockpit, blowing open one of the fuel cells to the fusion reactor. The explosion wasn't large, but it spat enough vapor from the side of the suit to momentarily blind the two behind it.

Galen took the chance as it came to him, charging in on the unsuspecting suits to point blank range. His bazooka ripped the first one open, and he drew his beam saber and cut the other in half down the middle before it could draw its own beam. "Heh. Too eas..." Naomi's arm gatling hit him from behind, more than a hundred rounds punching right through the Kaempfer's armor before Galen before he even knew she was there. The suit drifted in space for a few seconds before its reactor exploded, and Naomi circled around the debris and looked for her other target.

Chris cursed under her breath and shot off a few shots from the rifle, and Naomi spun around and fired right back. Both suits dodged each others fire, then pulled away from each other and started to circle. "Alex again? Their mechanics are quick!" She remembered her last battle with the Gundam and thought about the pilot she'd seen there. She had seen enough to know how he moved. "Let's see..." Chris dropped away a good distance and fired a few token shots from the rifle. The Gundam dodged the shots with massive movements with such speed Chris could barely follow it each time. They exchanged fire for a few moments, trading rifles and dodging each other and then firing again in an effort to land a hit. Before she knew it, Chris was flying backwards firing for all she was worth at the blue and white suit attacking her. "He's moving different... it's so FAST!" Chris fired two more shots from the rifle, then turned and ran from the suit as quickly as she could.

Naomi turned around and locked in on her target again, a Columbus class transport apparently modified for battle with armor plating and a pair of mega particle cannons on the sides of the hull. Three Hercules mobile suits noticed her approach, and Naomi paid them almost no regard as she came in. "That old junker won't take more than a few hits..." She noticed Lucy's Gundam closing in from the corner of her eye, and also noticed that none of the defending mobile suits had noticed her yet. She decided it was better if they never did. "Lucy, the hulk's all yours. I'm getting some new trophies on the wall."

Lucy chuckled on the radio. "Sick em, Girl!"

The three mobile suits all aimed with heavy machineguns and fired a long burst as she closed in. Naomi changed directions and flew ahead of the shells, aimed carefully and fired one shot from the rifle. The beam snaked out towards its target in seemingly slow motion and then impacted, a direct hit through the reactor of the farthest suit. The explosion hit the other two in a wave and set them up as easy targets. Naomi closed the distance and sprayed one with her arm gatling, then drew her beam saber and struck down on the other without even slowing down... and to her surprise her beam saber crashed down against the blade of another beam saber, locked for a moment and then threw both of them away. "He has a beam saber! Where did they get that kind of technology?!"

"Who cares? Just kill em already!" Lucy was in range, and the Ticonderoga's defense guns were already spitting flak in her direction in a vain effort to drive her away. Lucy swam around machinegun fire, raised her rifle and fired four quick shots just to soften it up. One of the blasts impacted just aft of the main bridge and opened up into massive explosions from within. Suddenly the defensive guns from the ship lost accuracy. She fired a few more shots, hitting the hull with each one and punching deep into the hull with each one. A few beams pierced the cargo modules-turned MS decks, two others cut through ammo storage at the far end...

Secondary explosions boiled up inside the hull, and finally one massive blast ripped open the portside MS deck and sent the ship into a spin, blowing itself apart from the inside out. Far above the ship, Naomi swatted away the Hercules' beam saber with one arm and them stabbed it through the chest with the other. She waited for it to stop moving, then pulled out and moved off to join Lucy far below her. "Nice shootin Lu..." She spotted it at the exact same time Lucy sensed it, but it was too late for either of them to do anything about it. The shell from Chris' rifle hit the Gundam's thruster pack at its softest point and exploded under the armor, spilling propellant and reactor coolant off into space like the lifeblood of the mobile suit. 

Lucy just managed to spin around and fire a token shot from the beam rifle, but Chris' next shot was a direct hit; the explosion blew the cockpit hatch clean off its hinges and peeled back the armor around it like a can of tuna. Naomi fired blast after blast at the Hercules as it retreated and just managed to score a hit, burning through the left side of the suit's chest and sending it into a spin. Chris acted on pure instinct, threw open the cockpit hatch and leapt out just seconds before her suit finally exploded. _I never expected there'd be two of them. Must be an entire Gundam unit, five or six units all based on the Alex,_ She tapped a button on the side of her suit and her emergency beacon started transmitting. It took about two seconds for Appoli's to pick up the signal, and once he did the Rickdom scanned through space and flew out to pick her up. _The Titans are worse than the Zeons. If we don't fight against them, we haven't learned a thing._ Appoli's Rickdom flew up to her quickly but carefully, closed its gigantic hand around her and then turned back towards the Scarface as it began to retreat.

The Alex's fingers pried open the twisted metal around Lucy's cockpit hatch and peered inside. Amazingly, the cockpit was mostly intact, and Lucy's normal suit seemed to be more or less undamaged. "You hurt, Lieutenant?"

Lucy looked into the giant green eye and smiled softly. "Only my pride."

"Can you still move? There's not many of them left but they're not surrendering. It's dangerous to stay here."

Lucy tugged and the controls again and then frowned at the lack of response. "No good. My AMBAC system is fried."

"Okay, just sit tight." The Alex grabbed the other suit by the hand and started pulling it towards the Tarawa. "How'd he sneak up on you like that, anyway? He was just sitting there aiming his rifle..."

"He came in from a blind spot. I didn't see him until he was right on me."

Naomi raised a brow. "The Gundam has blind spots?"

"Several of them. I noticed it a while ago when you guys were in Afghanistan. The new sensor configuration just makes it worse."

That worried her more than anything else. Naomi hadn't noticed any problems with Alex's optics before, and it actually frightened her that an enemy pilot would know her mobile suit better than she did herself. "How would a Riah pilot know how use a Gundam's blind spots?"

Lucy sighed and kicked her feet up on the smashed remnants of her control panel. "Who cares? You killed him, end of story. Let's just head back to the ship so I can get this damn thing fixed."

  
_-1710 hours (CST) -  
_Alice fired a few shots as Duncan closed in with his beam saber, all of her blasts falling wide of a direct hit. Duncan's shots were more accurate, but with his shells bouncing off her armor he stowed his machinegun and took the beam saber in both hands. Alice's capacitor energy bottomed out with the last shot and she discarded it in favor of her own beam saber. They closed the distance in a heartbeat, each took a swing at the other and their beam sabers locked up once again. Mudrock's beam saber was far more powerful, and Duncan already felt his own saber starting to loose power. He pulled away for now and thought of another way to attack, but at that moment the other Gundam came up behind him and fired a burst from the arm gatling at nearly point blank range. By some miracle he managed to moved just enough to avoid a direct hit and now started maneuvering to get distance from both of them. "Sis, help me out here! They're double teaming me!"

"I can't get a shot, Deuce! You're in the line of fire!" Vanessa's Rickdom peaked out from concealment inside the floating wreck of a transport shuttle, then ducked back in disappointment. "Those other suits are looking for me! Hurry up and get rid of her!"

"I'm trying!" Duncan pulled away and took another swing at her, but the Mudrock leapt over his attack and then came back down with one of its own. He barely had time to block it before it would have sliced him in half. "This old Rickdom's too slow to keep up with her! I need my ReGelg!"

Vanessa poked her head into the open again, and this time she spotted the Guncannon spiraling in space towards her position. There was a lot of floating debris around this area, so if anything it would take him a minute or two to figure out exactly where she was. "Deuce, hurry up! I don't have time to...!" She sensed a sudden burst of pressure and spun around just as a pair of GMs pushed through the debris and opened fire with beam guns. She dropped her beam cannon and shot out of the wreckage as fast as she could with the two GMs hot on her tail. "Shit, they spotted me!"

"This is Lieutenant Dyson, we've found that sniper! Fokker, get your ass over here!"

"I'll be right there..." Two GM Commandos in Riah colors moved out from concealment in a misguided attempt to ambush him from behind. Chase spun around and fired both cannons into one of them, and in his rush he left the other alone to retreat to whatever base or ship it had come from. The Rickdom Sniper drew a smaller beam rifle from its back and traded a few shots with the GMs as he closed in, and all at once Chase found something amusing about the pilot. "She's a horrible shot! Rico get in closer and keep the pressure on!"

"Roger..." That was easier said than done. Every time they tried to get closer, the Rickdom simply moved farther and farther away.

Duncan blocked Mudrock's beam saber and fired his thrusters straight up again before Ryo could attack him from behind again. So far he hadn't be able to land a single blow on the enemy, double teaming him as they were kept him more than a little busy. "You don't fight fair, Alice! Why don't you fight me one on one?!"

"Screw that! You think I'm gonna fight you solo my first time out?! I'm good but I'm not THAT good!"

"First time...?" A moment's hesitation and suddenly the entire battlefield changed. Four RB-79s from the Riah forces and at least as many GM Commandos passed by, exchanging fire with a group of GM Quells as they chased each other in circles. Duncan recognized that their little duel was starting to drift its way towards the main battle field. Somehow he saw this as a good thing. "You wanna gang up on me, that's fine..." He picked out the nearest GM and switched Riah's frequencies. "GM team, this is Duncan Marquis. I need two suits to help me out here!"

In one sharp movement, two GMs broke off from their fight with the Titans and changed their targets, moving up to support, Duncan's suit as the Gundam's chased it in circles. Both fired off a blast from their beam guns, at once forcing Mudrock and Alpha Gundam to stop and regroup. "Alice, you think you can take him on your own?"

"Not for too long! Hurry up with the GMs!"

Vanessa fired her spraybeam as a distraction and pulled away from the GMs, but as soon as she did she felt a few rounds from the Guncannon's machinegun glancing off the side of her armor. "Three on one? Let's even this out a little..." She took just a moment and concentrated, stopped in space for a split second to pick her target. For half a heartbeat her thoughts resonated with the mind of the GM pilot and in that instant her finger squeezed the trigger.

The beam hit the GM's main reactor, and the explosion knocked Ricardo's suit spinning out for a few moments. It left Vanessa a little time to check out her position, but once she did so she found herself suddenly in the middle of a larger battle field. One of the Titans heavy cruisers was only a half a mile away from there, with several mobile suits and fighters trading punches back and forth amongst the fresh debris fields from makeshift warships and military shuttles.

She sensed another attack, this time from right in front of her. She dodged left just in time to avoid a massive barrage of machineguns and larger shells from Chase's Guncannon and fired a few pot shots in return while she looked for another way to attack him. He was so far away her sensors could barely even see him, but she could sense his presence in any case. _The other GM will be on me in a minute. Maybe I can..._ She saw something moving behind the suit: three FFS-3 Sablefish fighters emerging from the debris field and diving in on the Guncannon's back. "Perfect!"

All three fighters fired their missiles, and on reflex Chase spun around and fired a long spray with his head Vulcans. The missiles exploded in clusters in front of him and the fighters broke off from their run, but for that one second he had his back turned Vanessa steadied herself and concentrated. Her beam rifle fired, the beam crossed the hundreds of meters between them and then hit the bull's-eye of the suit's fusion reactor.

Alice sensed more than saw the explosion, and a split second later sensed Ensign Fokker's mind disappear from her world. She already knew exactly what had happened, and suddenly she overflowed with rage. The feeling swept across the entire battlefield in a terrifying wave. It paralyzed everyone for hundreds of miles, newtype or oldtype, young and old, Titans or Defense Force, and for a few seconds absolutely everything stopped completely.

The crew of the Agamemnon looked around anxiously as if they might find the source of it somewhere nearby. Lieutenant Harrida even searched his radar screens more attentively to find the source of it. But Admiral Juan Dyson was the only one who knew this feeling, and the only one with his eye on the exact source of it. He watched from the distance as one of the Tarawa's Gundams suddenly broke away from its fight and streaked across space to attack the enemy that had just destroyed their Guncannon, its pilot so obviously inexperienced yet somehow moving with the skill of a seasoned ace. _That's not Lieutenant Anderson in there, and it certainly isn't Naomi..._

Vanessa could barely move from the pressure against her skull, but with the Mudrock charging in towards her, adrenaline overrode everything else and she started firing wildly in a vain effort to scare her off. Alice was screaming in her cockpit, and as she got closer she began screaming in Vanessa's mind, _You killed Chase! You didn't have to kill him!_

"I didn't mean to, but we're in the middle of a battle...!"

_You shouldn't have killed him! He was a kind hearted person! He only wanted to help me!_

Vanessa drew her beam saber as the Gundam came in and waited for it to come in, then surged forward and stabbed into the cockpit... Mudrock moved so quickly she actually blinked off an afterimage; it darted up over her attack and then struck down again, slicing straight through the beam saber and her right arm. Vanessa turned and fired off the beam rifle, Alice tossed the beam rifle aside and snatched the rifle out of her hand, then spun around and kicked her in the side as she backed away from her. "Kid, you're letting your emotions get the best of you! That's a good way to get yourself killed!"

"Good advice from a dead woman!" Alice took Vanessa's beam rifle in hand, aimed at the suit and fired blast after blast until the capacitor died out. The beams chopped the Rickdom apart piece by piece; arms, legs, head, thruster pack, sections of armor, finally cutting through the torso of the suit and punching open propellant tanks and coolant lines. Vanessa pulled the lever next to her seat and half a second later the ejector pod separated, drifting in space along with the rest of the chopped-up mobile suit until the reactor section finally exploded.

Admiral Dyson tuned his headset to the Tarawa's frequency and listened in for a few moments.

Ryo fired over Duncan's head with his beam rifle, and Alice turned and did the same with her shoulder cannons as the Rickdom charged in. As before, he didn't bother with her at all, rather flew through the scattering debris of Vanessa's Rickdom and snatched her ejector pod out of space, then fired his spray-beam again and flew away from the battlefield as quickly as they could. "Shit, he's escaping! Ryo, we can't let them get away...!"

"Negative, Alice! Look at your fuel status!"

Alice groped around the cockpit and found the right buttons, held them down for a few moments and let the mobile suit tell her how it was feeling. "Aw man! I almost had him too! And that sniper chick... Geez, it's like IMPOSSIBLE to kill that woman!"

"We'll get another chance, Alice." Ryo looked around the battlefield for a few moments and took it all in for the first time. Londenium colony was far behind them, the lights of battle already dwindling away there, and in this immediate area the last enemy mobile suits were either destroyed or running for their lives along with the rest of Riah's defense forces. The battle was as good as over, with only a few remote pockets of resistance still putting up a fight here and there. "The Tarawa's waiting for us by the colony. I'm sure your brother's worried sick about you right now."

"I thought he launched in a core fighter? What happened to him?"

"He's back with the ship, which is where we should be right now." Ryo turned back towards Londenium and kicked in his main thrusters. Alice followed along, and after a few moments Lieutenant Dyson came out of the debris field and joined them there. _Six kills..._ He thought, glancing over his shoulder at the Mudrock Gundam. _ Six kills on her first sortie... I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself!_

On the bridge of the Agamemnon, Admiral Dyson leaned back in his chair and laughed quietly to himself. "Impressive, Naomi. Those pilots from the Merrimac were just a smoke screen after all." He watched on the main screen as the Tarawa's suits retreated, and suddenly a new thought occurred to him, "Maybe... this one could be useful..."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Might as well answer some questions as they come in. I do that sometimes, you know?

- Wing Zero Alpha: 

I'm using this fic to try and bridge the technology gap between OYW and Zeta-Era mobile suits. By about 0087, the line between space-use and ground-use mobile suits disappears altogether and I've always wondered just when that really happened. I think Kaempher was one of the first to really do that. From what I've seen, it's performance in gravity should be about equal to the Rick Dias, though the Kaempher is notorious for being a gas guzzler and Rick Dias is just... well, FAST.

As for the quotes... I dunno, I just find em places and put em in a fic ^_^.


	13. Chapter 12: Mutual Enemy

_If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility._   
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

* * *

**Chapter 12: Mutual Enemy**

_- March 23, UC 0084 -_  
_- 0630 hours (CST) -_  
Captain Shiden's eyes were beginning to loose color from staring at the desolate lunar landscape unrolling beneath his ship. He'd thought it would be less depressing as the Tarawa came to a closer approach on its orbit, but as luck would have it the scene only got worse the closer he came to it. It had all the landscaping charm of a gravel pit and half as much color; he was somewhat tempted to close the blast shudders on the bridge to stare at the relatively festive color of drab metal plating. "Erin, how soon until we can put into Granda's space port?"

Ensign Garcia yawned and glanced lazily over her shoulder. "Uh... I dunno." Captain Shiden raised an eyebrow and the Ensign suddenly remembered she was still on duty. "Oh, sorry sir. We're about fifteen minutes from perigee, which puts us about two hours from final docking."

"Two more hours of this..." Maybe it was just the lighting, the effect of a lunar high-noon that eliminated all shadows and variation from the moonscape, or maybe it was just the sorry condition of the ship and mobile suits that had him so depressed. After three weeks of battling guerillas in Side 6, half of the Tarawa's mobile suits were down for the count and the other half were already showing signs of fatigue. This stop at Granada would be little more than a three-day pit stop before the ship put in to its home port at Konpei Island for repairs and replacement mobile suits for the powerful but hopelessly overworked Gundams. Thinking about it just made it all seem worse. "Erin, could you at least turn the ship so we can see the stars? It's so depressing here..."

"Well, I could turn us, but we'd just have to turn back in ten minutes for the next wave of maneuvers."

"Yeah, I know. Never mind..."

Lieutenant Browning's radar screen screeched a brief warning and a series of lights flashed on the overhead monitor. "Is that... Captain, I've got a heat source on the port quarter."

_Finally something happening._ "Range?"

"About three hundred kilometers aft of us... whoa! Multiple heat sources detected, looks like weapons fire and an explosion."

"Magnitude?"

"Small arms, some explosive weapon. Could be a mobile suit or a fighter."

Just that little and the Captain was ready to forget about this monotonous moonscape beneath him. He would have liked to turn the ship to check it out himself, but ten years of naval experience worked him in the right direction in the end. "Holland, have Lieutenant Wilson send out a patrol. Have them rendezvous with us at Granada's space port."

"Aye, Captain." Holland knew the pilot's daily routines by heart now and paged Lieutenant Wilson right where he knew she would be. "Bridge to Lieutenant Wilson, report in immediately." 

He waited patiently for a few moments and was greeted by severely irritated Lieutenant with a textbook case of bed-head. "What now, Holland?" She said yawning.

"Aaron's pickin up a firefight. Captain wants you to check it out."

Naomi groaned and started falling back into bed. "I'll send Lucy and Dyson. Have Brian standby in..."

"Lucy's AMBAC is on the fritz again and Dyson's GM has no left arm."

Naomi growled and climbed out of bed one last time, still in uniform from the routine suddenness of her cat-nap. "I don't believe this... have Izumi standby on the MS deck." She sat down at her desk chair and started tugging her boots back on, but then caught Holland just before he clicked off the monitor, "Doug, hold it! Have Alice meet me there instead with Mudrock. Put Izumi on standby in case we need backup."

Lieutenant Holland grinned. "Why do you always take the rugrat? Izumi's already standing by on C-Deck."

"I told you, it's the conspiracy."

Holland, like most of the crew, was used to the old cliché of "co-conspirators only" information among senior officers. This time he had his foot in the door. "By any chance would the late Ensign Fokker, Captain Shiden or Lieutenant Matsui be in on this little conspiracy?"

Naomi did a double take at the monitor, caught a little off guard by the question. "Aren't you on duty, Holland?"

"Cut me in and I'll leave you alone."

Naomi groaned yet again and started out of her quarters again. "Fine, I'll brief you and Izumi at the same time. But LATER, not now."

"Izmui? He's in on it too?"

Naomi killed the monitor and slipped out of her quarters before the Ensign could annoy her further. _Damn, I can't keep ANYTHING secret anymore._

_- 0635 hours (CST) -_  
"Well, it's official. With Side 6 out of the loop, there's no one left to argue with them."

Duncan felt his stomach churning. "They're canceling the Colony Reclamation Plan?"

"They already have, four hours ago I believe. The Feddies won't spend another dime restoring damaged colonies. The C.P.C.'s gonna change a few names and side numbers, alter some zip codes, and help repopulate the colonies that have already been built. As usual, Earthnoids are saying it's none of their business and they're leaving the colonies to rebuild all on their own."

"And what about Side 6?"

Captain Emeril held a cigar on his lip and shuffled around in his pocket for a lighter. "Londenium and a few of the largest colonies are being moved to Side 1, and the new government HQ will be in Bunch 39. Oh, and the new zones go into effect starting next month, so Side 6 will become Side 5."

"What's Side 5 become?"

"Side 4. And the old Side 4 becomes Side 6..." 

"Forget it, it's too confusing." Duncan was surprisingly at ease despite the situation. The Titov and it's "fleet" of ten mixed civilian and mercenary ships had nowhere to go and no one to turn to, with perhaps their last refuge now occupied territory of the Titans. "I hate all this political dancing," He grumbled bitterly, "Any word from Side 7? It IS still Side 7, right?"

The Captain finally found his lighter, but for some reason was no longer in the mood for a cigar. "Yes and yes."

"And?"

"The old man had nothing positive to say. Basically, we're no longer welcome at Green Noa-II. Hell, he's even denying our status with the Marquis Fleet in case the Titans catch on."

"I expected that. Dad never misses a chance to cover his own ass." Duncan let himself drift out of the chair and float lazily around the bridge with his arms folded behind his head. The Titov was nowhere near what could have been called a combat zone, but even despite his relaxed posture something in him wanted to jump in his mobile suit and go out looking for more enemies to fight. 

For a few long moments the Captain let him float there in the solitude of his own thoughts, but the relaxed atmosphere in the room evaporated with the opening of the main hatch. Vanessa swaggered into the room with all the humility of an undefeated champion boxer, even despite the cast on her left arm and the multitude of bruises covering the whole of her body. Out of respect for his older sister he let her mood go on for a few moments, though Captain Emeril didn't even seem to notice her sore lack of taste. "Finally awake, huh? I told the medics to inform me when you regained consciousness..."

"I wanted to surprise you. And what do you mean finally? How long was I out anyway?" She said snappishly as if coming out a short catnap.

Captain Emeril turned and tried to smile, even knowing the humorless nature of the situation. "It'll be three weeks tomorrow. And you ought to thank your brother, you wouldn't have woken up at all if it weren't for him."

Vanessa glanced at Duncan and chuckled. "Oh, come off it. Takes more than some spoiled little brat to take me down."

The time for patience had come and gone. Duncan turned around, planted his feet on the deck and pushed over to her side. She glanced up at him just a split second before he pulled back his arm and slapped the taste out of her mouth. She recoiled in shock, then looked at him in utter surprise. "Duncan, what is your...?!" Duncan thrust a stack of papers into her face before she could say anything else. She skimmed the papers at first just to see what they were, but on a second look her eyes widened in surprise. "What's this all about, Deuce?"

"We finally got some reliable intel." Duncan let her thumb through the papers and read all the information while he recapped it for her. "The girl's name is Alicia Robyn Cunningham, age thirteen. She's listed as a civilian observer on the assault carrier Tarawa, but according to our data she's being trained as a combat pilot."

Vanessa looked at the papers and saw all this for herself in all its striking detail. "Where'd you get all this data? I don't suppose you have a mole onboard their ship..."

"No, but since you've been sleeping we've made some fairly resourceful friends."

Captain Emeril stepped down from his chair and walked over to the main screen in the back of the room. "Riah went down hard, but not without a fight. The defense forces were beaten easily, but several other factions have moved in and started making trouble. Nothing too major, just some blockade runs and a couple rallies. One or two pirate groups even tried a couple raids." Captain Emeril typed in a command on the view screen and the computer called up an image of the Mudrock Gundam from its archives. "As it turns out, some of these pirates are really good at getting sensitive information. Based on all data, the mobile suit that shot you down is unlike any weapon we've ever encountered. Even the other Newtype-use models can't seem to keep up with it." The computer replayed the last images from Duncan's flight recorder, granting Vanessa the humiliation of watching her own mobile suit chopped to bits with its own beam rifle. "We've been analyzing the data for three weeks, even staged a fight trying to draw it out for analysis. We have no idea what kind of control system or technology makes this possible..."

"I don't think it's that. It could be just the pilot."

Duncan grinned at the captain, settling a two-week-old bet with just those few words. Captain Emeril decided to be stubborn. "I think that's very unlikely. The pilot's a pre-teen with poor eyesight, no combat training, no battle experience of any kind. There's no way she could have done all that damage without some mechanical aid."

"What damage...?" Vanessa flipped to the back page for the last and most alarming intelligence reports. It was a list of fleet actions within Side 6 over the past three weeks and the known mobile weapons involved there. In four separate engagements, the Mudrock was accounted for seven mobile suits shot down and five aerospace fighters. "No... that's impossible! She's only a child!"

"She's almost a year younger than your brother and is fast approaching his battle record. I wouldn't have believed it myself except..."

"... she managed to shoot ME down, right?"

"Well, yes. Face it Vanessa, you're not exactly the best pilot in the world, but I've never seen you take a beating like that before. If she could handle YOU like that..."

Vanessa glanced over at Duncan with a faint grin. "So that's how it is, huh? I make one little mistake and now you're trying to protect me from your little girlfrie...?"

"How about you pull your head out of your ass and grow up a little!" Duncan sprang forward, shouting in her face. "We don't have time to screw around anymore! The Titans are getting more aggressive and Alicia's becoming more skilled! If we don't do something now, we could have a real nightmare on our hands!"

Vanessa pushed him gently away from her, letting his words fly over her head for the time being. "I'll keep that in mind, baby bro. Anyway, where the hell are we going?"

Captain Emeril turned and smiled. "We heard some scuttlebutt about a gathering in deep space of a bunch of renegades and cutthroats. As we have nothing better to do at the moment, we're on our way to check it out."

Vanessa scratched her head in confusion. "Gathering by who? I thought the Riah forces were all wiped out?"

"Not all of them, but they're in no position to organize anything. It's some left-wing political group called the A.E.U.G.."

Vanessa looked at Duncan, who seemed to take this situation even less seriously than she did. "And they are...?"

Duncan shrugged. "I dunno, but they don't like Titans."

"Great. We should get along just fine then."

_- 0651 hours (CST) -_  
The flashes of cannon fire and explosions flickered intermittently ahead of them, mixed with the occasional signal flare and a streak of what looked like a shoulder-fired rocket. They were almost close enough to get visuals; Mudrock was skimming over the moon's dusty surface at its top hovering speed while Alex bounded along ahead of it with long vernier leaps. Naomi couldn't help but notice the speed gap between them and felt a surge of anxiety. Alex's thrusters weren't nearly efficient enough to hover the suit, and any other way it was just barely fast enough to keep up with Alice's faster mobile suit. She tried not to think about it; the idea of Alex being obsolete was both disappointing and increasingly obvious. "Scan ahead, Alice. What do you see?"

Alice adjusted the sensors to their highest resolution and let the computer do all the work. The system couldn't pick out the fine details for her, but by now she was used to it enough to tell what the sensors were seeing. "At least seven mobile suits. I think they're Zaku type, but there's two GMs flying around too. And I think there's something else in that crater."

Naomi rebounded off the surface and jumped higher than usual on her next leap, scanning down over the lip of the crater to see a gigantic heat source and a large column of outgassing. "Whatever it is, the GMs are protecting it... might be one of those transports from Riah. We've had reports of those things getting ambushed lately."

"Oh yeah, you're right! Maybe these are the hijackers we're looking for?"

"Either way, there's not that many of em. Alright, Alice, what should we do in this situation?"

Alice thought about everything Naomi had taught her in the last three weeks and wracked her brain to think of a solution. "Uh... we should call the Tarawa and have them send backup, then setup a rendezvous point where we can offload survivors."

Naomi felt something warm in her heart. _What a fast little learner._ "Exactly right, under normal circumstances. But remember, the only mobile suits ready for combat are Ryo and Mike. Your brother could use a core fighter, but that won't be much help until we get the upgrade parts from Granada."

Alice thought for a few more seconds and then came up with her plan-B. "We might support the GMs to cover the transport and then call up a missile barrage from the Tarawa. It's still on the horizon for another few minutes."

"That is one option, but if the enemy strength isn't too high we can achieve the same effect with your 300mm." 

"You're right. I might need you to spot for me."

"Of course. Fall in behind me and we'll each pick our first target." _She's been studying her manual. Not bad for a girl who reads with her fingers._

Alex landed on the lunar dust and blasted forward under full power, more flying than hovering towards the still-intense battle zone ahead of them. Mudrock followed along the same way and Alice flipped up the safety on her beam rifle as they came into range.

An explosion overhead announced to them they were finally close enough. Alex cut left and Mudrock cut right, both selecting the same target from opposite ends. The Zeon mobile suit noticed Naomi first and boosted straight up to get the drop on her. "That's yours," Naomi said, stopping long enough to keep the suit's attention. 

Alice took her cue and locked her computer onto it, steadied herself in space and then fired off two quick blasts from the beam rifle, both scoring hits and sending the Zaku tumbling to the ground in three separate pieces. "Got him."

"Nice shot." _Another improvement. She usually hits him in three or four..._ Naomi fired her thrusters again and rose up over the crater, joined by Alice just a few seconds later as they followed the battle area and the dueling mobile suits nearby.

As soon as they had a view, both of them gasped in surprise. Two GMs lay broken in the dust next to the battered and broken hull of a Salamis class, its defensive guns still firing wildly into the air in a vain effort to keep its attackers at bay. The two surviving GMs were fighting it out with three enemies at the opposite side of the crater while a pair of Gouf Custom's bombarded the cruiser with gatling guns from the distance. _Only a few of them... so much for the missile barrage. _Naomi and Alice both landed in the crater next to the cruiser and crouched down next to the hull just below the bridge. She made sure they were clear from enemy fire and called out on the short-range radio, "Lieutenant Wilson, EFS-Tarawa."

There was a long pause, then one of the GMs from outside of the crater landed behind them and a slightly annoyed woman returned with a light French accent, "Lieutant Sayla Mass, EFS-Bali! We got ambushed by some hijackers masquerading as refugees. They forced us down here and they're trying to board us!"

Naomi wondered at first why no one in the command staff had answered, but on a second look she saw the reason for it. The main bridge was riddled with machinegun fire and almost falling apart in Luna's gravity. "What's your cargo?"

"It's uh... medical supplies and thermite charges for clearing colony wreckage."

Alice listened for a few moments and turned up the volume on her radio. _ Where've I heard that voice before...?_ "What about the crew? Is anyone still aboard?"

"There's still some officers trapped below decks, the rest evacuated on foot. In any case, we can't let them through to the ship unless we scuttle it."

"That's true." Naomi ran around the stern of the ship and came around the other end, just beneath the line of fire of the two Gouf Customs. A flurry of machinegun fire ripped apart two of the defense turrets, but the ship's aft particle cannons were still blasting away for all they were worth. _They're being careful with those after turrets. They don't wanna risk hitting the engines._ Naomi poked her head over the lip of the crater just long enough to get a look at the two attackers. They were about twenty kilometers away, which was about as close as they dared with the barrage still pouring out of the cruiser. She scanned the mobile suits for target data and then flinched at something else. "Two Goufs with heavy machine guns... wait a second, how can a ground type mobile suit operate in space?!"

Alice walked around behind the cruiser and crouched down just behind its engine nozzle. "How should I know? Shut up and spot for me!"

Naomi poked her head up again and her computer quickly calculated their position for her. "Range, nineteen point five-eight. Set your spread at one and a half degrees, plus and minus 127. And remember you're in Lunar gravity here."

"Gotcha." _Adjust for Lunar gravity... that's one low shot!_ Alice aimed both cannons just over the lip of the crater and turned herself in the right direction. _Angle's too high..._ She fired a burst from her head vulcans and lowered the lip of the crater just enough to clear her shot. "Perfect! I'm locked in!"

"Then shoot!"

Mudrock fired the cannons in sequence, left and then right in a continuous rhythm until each barrel had fired five shots. It only took a few moments for them to impact; the shells began exploding one after another all around the two Goufs, knocking them around like ducks in a pond and kicking up giant columns of dust around them. The last shell exploded only a few meters in front of the lead suit and knocked it off its feet, and in another instant, Naomi's Gundam burst through the dust cloud with its beam saber and sliced it in half before it even hit the ground. The other Gouf spun around and launched its heat rod; Alex spun around in place and sprayed the suit with its arm gatling and the Gouf exploded almost immediately. The tip end of the heat rod connected with Alex's armor, with its other end now attacked to a pile of shattered debris. "Ground types in space. Of all the dumb ideas..."

She saw a pair of twin flashes out of the corner of her eye and turned to watch Alice and the other two GMs gang up on the retreating raiders. One fell victim to Sayla's beam spray gun, while the other one caught a pair of 300mm shells in its main vernier pack and disappeared in a tremendous fireball.

Everything about this fight had Naomi shaking her head in utter confusion. Even as Alex returned to the cruiser with the other Federation suits, she still had nothing but questions about the enemies they'd just defeated. The first person with any information was the first person to suffer her frustrations, "Lieutenant Sayla, are you sure these guys were trying to hijack your ship? If I didn't know better, I'd swear these guys weren't even expecting a fight."

Even the mobile suit shrugged at the question, something which almost made Naomi laugh. "They seem a little eccentric... or maybe just desperate. They attacked us with a squadron of Dopps packed with high explosives and crashed them into the ship like missiles."

Naomi groaned once again. "See, there you go again! Dopps can't fly in space!"

The GM shrugged again. "Fly, no. Drift, yes. Their tactics are unorthodox, but somewhat effective, as you can see."

"Right..." Next Naomi turned to Alice, who she could tell was already wracking her brain for excuses. "What about that last Zaku you shot down? That explosion was a little bright for an old..."

"I didn't look like a Zaku. I think it was a... a... I don't know what the hell that was, but it was really ugly." 

"I don't care, what's dead is dead." Naomi turned back to the wrecked cruiser lying against the side of a lunar crater and the sliced-open cargo hold along the side of it. Now that she looked carefully, she could actually see a dozen space suited officers with torches cutting through sections of the outer hull to rescue their trapped comrades inside. _Tough break, guys..._ "Sayla, we'll get in touch with the Tarawa and send a pickup. Are you the ranking officer in charge?"

She hesitated for a long moment and then stammered back, "Well... I... um... well, actually, we don't need you to send a pickup. With the raiders eliminated, we can take it from here."

Naomi started to ask another question, but then stopped herself and slowly looked around and examined the hull of the Salamis cruiser. The markings had all been stripped by battle damage, but now that she looked at it more carefully she recognized something about the hull she should have realized from the very beginning. Most Federation cruisers were upgraded with mobile suit launch facilities either shortly before or immediately after the Delaz Uprising; this one was not. "Is all of your equipment registered?"

"Through our unit, yes."

"Which unit is that, exactly?"

Sayla hesitated to answer, but hoping for a miracle she tried her long shot. "That would be the... 13th Autonomous corp. of the Tianem 2nd Fleet."

Naomi grinned at the response. She still wasn't sure what was going on here, but given that bizarre habits of their enemies it was a safe bet to say they weren't much of a threat. "Heh... Give my regards to White Base." 

"I certainly will."

Naomi turned her mobile suit and started walking out of the crater in the direction of Granada. Alice followed along behind her, but just before she left turned for a parting, "Nice to see you again, Artesia," and followed Naomi back out of the crater.

Sayla waited until both were well out of range before kneeling down again and drawing her beam saber. She gave the workers a few moments to clear out and then began slicing open the hull of the ship to clear a path through to the cargo hold. _Stay out of trouble, Alice, for once in your life..._ She cut out a small square section out of the hull just large enough for the work crews to slip inside and complete their mission. _I was afraid this would happen. Casval was right after all. The Titans are obsessed with controlling newtypes..._ "Ground team, our supply ship from Tycho will arrive shortly. The cargo is the number one priority, but you must TRY to get to the main computer."

_- 1925 hours (CST) -_  
Commander Passaroff only weighed thirty two pounds in Lunar gravity, but just that little weight in his heels was a welcome sensation. He could walk almost normally in Granada's spaceport without having to step firmly everywhere and keep himself pulled to the deck, no longer having to worry about pulled muscles or strained joins from all the tricky movements of Zero gravity. Just being here on Luna brought back memories; somehow he wished the Titans had just assigned the Albion into their forces and let him keep it.

Agamemnon's refueling was near complete, but the ship wasn't scheduled to leave for quite some time. Admiral Dyson hadn't returned to the ship since its arrival here four days ago—not that anyone had minded his absence—and now as the jeep came to rest in front of the three-star hotel where Dyson was staying during port leave. The Passaroff left the jeep in idle close to the front door and stepped inside quickly, hoping to get this business out of the way and move on to far more interesting pursuits. He didn't even wait for the girl behind the front desk to look up, just slapped his hands on the wood and started speaking, "I'm Commander Passaroff, I'm looking for Admiral Juan Dyson."

The woman looked up slowly and eyeballed the Titans uniform. It took her all of two seconds to remember the room number of his objective. "Room 211, take that elevator."

Passaroff raised a brow. "How'd you remember that so fast?"

"We got a lot of Titans." Passaroff nodded and started for the elevator, but the girl behind the desk added to his back, "And if you have no other business here, I'd appreciate it if you leave quickly. We've had some noise complaints from up there."

The Commander stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to the desk. "Noise complaints?"

"Admiral Dyson's had a lot of visitors up there. Some of the guests keep complaining about some commotion."

"Yeah... thank you, ma'am."

He took the elevator to the second floor and turned left at the hall, around a corner and down another hall to the extra-luxurious suite that was room 211. Passaroff stood and listened for any signs of "commotion," but heard nothing after a few long moments and decided he was in the clear. _Don't sweat it, I'm sure they were just rumors._ He knocked on the door and stepped back a little from the peephole. The door opened only seconds later and Commander Passaroff saluted the Admiral as he stepped into the hallway. "Reporting, sir."

"At ease, Commander." Dyson returned the salute and pulled the door almost-closed behind him. "How's my ship?"

"Refueling is almost complete, and our supplies all arrived on schedule. Major Cunningham has been in contact with Admiral Marquis, and he reports they're ready to proceed with Carter's test phase. We're just waiting for Marquis to pick a test location..."

"About that..." Admiral Dyson grinned and leaned back against the doorpost. "Something's come up recently and it seems we might not be needing Marquis' scientists after all."

"Sir?"

"It's what we've always suspected, Commander. The problem with our new weapons is not the weapons themselves, but rather the pilots."

"Uh... yes sir." Passaroff felt a tingle in the palms of his hands, but tried his best not to show it. Neither he nor anyone else in the crew had been briefed on whatever it was Project N was supposed to be doing, in fact the only information they'd been given at yesterday's briefing was that the Marquis fleet had the missing pieces of this magical new technology. "How will this affect the overall mission, sir? Uh... if you don't mind me asking..."

"It won't. If anything, it'll change our testing schedule. Don't worry about it."

"Yes sir. Will that be all, sir?" Dyson took a few moments to think about it, but in that brief silence, Passaroff heard the strangest sound from the still-cracked hotel room door. It was very faint, sounded muffled in some way, but if Passaroff didn't know better he would swear there was someone crying. "A-Admiral...?"

"Nothing else, Commander, but put in a requisition order for a MRP-720 and at least one spare cap. Have Bates team run some simulations with it."

Passaroff listened for a few more moments before he even considered the Admiral's order. "An EMP? I beg your pardon, Admiral, but these weapons aren't even effective in modern combat. Even the old Zakus are screened against EMPs."

"I'm well aware of that, Commander. Carry on."

"Thank you, sir." Passaroff saluted again and Admiral Dyson stepped back into the hotel room. For the few seconds the door was open, Pasaroff heard it loud and clear; the sound of someone crying somewhere inside the hotel room. For a few moments he tried to shake it off, told himself it was the TV or the radio. In the elevator he decided it was someone in another room, and back in the lobby he decided it was just his imagination... then he came to the front desk and slapped the wood again, "Excuse me, have there been any other visitors for Admiral Dyson today?"

The girl reached under her desk and checked the guest list for the day under the visitor registry. "Three others, uh... a Colonel Sheridan from the marine corps, James Langly and Garcia Lorca. The two civilians are listed as relatives."

Passaroff sighed in a bit of reliefe and started to walk away, but once again the girl stopped him before he got too far, "Interesting... Mr. Passaroff, there was one other."

It took every bit of nerve to turn his head and face the girl again. "Who?"

"She was with Colonel Sheridan, he said she was his niece."

"How old was she?"

"I don't know. Ten... twelve... something like that."

The Commander turned back and walked out of the lobby without another word, not looking back or even stopping to digest the information. He hopped back into the jeep, slammed the accelerator and sped off towards Granada's downtown district. _Calm down, Yuri, it's only a rumor..._ Just the echo of the sound from Dyson's hotel room caught up with him again and he slammed the gas even harder. _I think I could use a drink._

_- 1939 hours (CST) -_  
The Tarawa was descending into Granada's main port, riding on a cushion of minovksy particles to control its descent into the hub of the city. Captain Shiden almost rejoiced to see the flickering patterns of guide lights running vertically to give Ensign Garcia a visual reference; any color by now was a welcome thing to see. The entire crew felt the weight dropping off their shoulders and an air of relaxation filling their lungs. Granada was everyone's favorite port, the kind of city Earthnoids had never learned to appreciate. 

Naomi and company were in the officers lounge when the ship finally touched down, with Lucy and Mike kicking back at a table sharing a bottle of campaign, Chief Watson and three other senior mechanics at another table napping comfortably after yet another barn-burning effort to service Naomi's mobile suit after another sortie. Naomi stood in the middle of them all and waited until well after the ship had landed, a wait of more than fifteen minutes before all three of the party guests arrived at once. She eyed each of them as they sat down; Ryo Izumi and Brian Anderson came in side by side and Captain Shiden closed the door behind them. All three grabbed chairs and pulled up between the two tables, but then one late arrival slipped into the room with an armload of holographic equipment. "Sorry I'm late," Holland said, huffing from the long climb from the storage room six decks below. "Shit, even in low gravity..."

"Stop bitching. You want in or not?" Holland nodded sadly and set the projector down in the middle of the room, opened the panels and plugged it into the wall behind Naomi. "Now then, for those few newcomers here, we always meet in the lounge like this because of security reasons."

"Security?" Brian looked around self consciously.

"It's easier to sweep for bugs in here than the briefing room." 

"Ah."

"Before we start, I might as well bring you three up to speed." She slipped a disk into the base of the projector and threw the switch. After a few seconds, an image appeared in the air in the middle of the room showing a gigantic mobile suit unlike any Ryo or Brian had ever seen. "The Titans refer to a program called Project N. You'll never see it personified more clearly than this thing."

Ryo gazed at the massive bulk of the machine and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Wh-What is it?"

Lucy stepped up and stood on the opposite side from Naomi. "MRX-007. It's merely a prototype for a much larger unit, but Titans are calling it "Flash Gundam." It's very heavily armored and extremely powerful, and despite its appearances it's also quite agile."

Naomi turned the image of the mobile suit around a few times so they could all see it clearly, giving the newbees a piece by piece tour. "The entire suit is built around an advanced Pschyommu system nearly identical to the Zeong class mobile suits of the One Year War." She turned it to face the front and singled out one massive squarish bulge on its torso. "It usually carries no handheld weapons, but it's main armament consists of this extremely high output beam cannon on the chest. It's capable of both wave-form and scattering motion, so there's really no point taking it on at close range. He'll just blow you away as soon as you slow down."

Ryo shifted back and forth in his chair again. "Is it protected?"

Naomi grinned. "Very. The cannon's fully armored on all angles and has a blast shield when it's idle. You should also be careful of a smaller beam cannon mounted in the head, two small ones on the forearms as well. The suit is also known to carry at least one beam saber into combat on a recharge rack just below the main vernier pack."

Ryo and Brian looked at each other for a few moments, and Ensign Holland suddenly regretted being made part of this. "Is that all the intel we have on it?"

Naomi nodded. "Everything we could swipe from the Titans. If this latest info is reliable, it might be combat ready within two to three weeks."

Brian though for a few moments, then thought of a new question, "And you don't know who's behind this exactly, right?"

Captain Shiden giggled at the question. "I don't think you understand this situation, Lieutenant. Flash Gundam is a Titans weapon designed expressly for their Newtype corp. The purpose of this meeting is to figure out how to kill it."

"Really?" Ryo looked around at all the people in the room with him and started to smile. "Little mutiny, huh?"

"Something like that." Naomi clicked off the holo-screen and pulled up a chair in the midst of the group. "We're not going to war against the Federation, Ryo. It's just the Titans are building a weapon much too powerful and it has to be destroyed."

"Why?" He looked up slowly until he was looking straight into her eyes. "Before you mentioned something about bio-weapons, but this is just some radically advanced mobile suit. What's the big deal?"

Brian sat up and nodded in agreement. "Besides, from the look of that thing it's still just a concept. I don't know about your intelligence source, but I strongly doubt something that loaded would even be able to stand up."

"It can." Naomi stood up from her chair in front of him and, to Ryo's extremely mild surprise, started to unbutton her shirt. "There's only one person in this room who really knows anything about these weapons..." She pulled off the top shirt of her uniform, reduced to a tanktop now, and turned her shoulder so Ryo could see the number 07 burned into her arm with what looked like a branding iron. "... and I know these things from experience."

Ryo stood up in front of her and almost grabbed her in his excitement. "You've piloted something like that?"

Captain Shiden sighed and folded his arms behind his head. "Our dear Lieutenant Wilson was one of Project N's rising stars. She'd still be there now if it weren't for a few minor circumstances."

Brian felt a sense of inclusion in this crew he hadn't felt since he came aboard, but he wouldn't be doing himself a service if he didn't finally ask his question, "And where does Alice fit into all this?"

Naomi waited for Ryo to sit back down and then turned to face the entire room. "Alice's abilities are... an anomaly. She's already on a higher level than me, and certainly higher than any of Project N's other pilots. The only thing she lacks is combat experience, but I've been working night and day trying to get her caught up."

Captain Shiden folded his arms across his chest. "You think she's ready?"

"Not quite, but close."

Brian fidgeted in his chair, glancing around like a little kid waiting for someone to notice him again. "You still haven't answered me. What do you want with her? What's she supposed to do in all this?"

Naomi started to answer, but Lucy stood up and walked around in front of him. "Flash Gundam utilizes an upscale version of Mudrock's Psycommu Interface. An oldtype wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell, unless the battle system is disrupted by a more powerful wave form. We don't know for sure how to produce that energy wave..."

"But Alice does." Brian looked past her at Naomi with a strange sparkle in his eye. "That's why you brought us aboard after the Merrimac Incident. You're going to use her just like some living weapon..."

"That's how it has to be, Brian. She's our only shot at making this work."

Brian stared at her for a few long moments, then shook his head in disgust. "You're no better than the Titans! You don't even care about her, you're just using her for your own..."

"Of course we're using her. She's a weapon, and a valuable one. She's the only weapon we have that can defeat the Flash Gundam."

Brian surged up towards her and everyone in the room moved back a couple inches. "Alice isn't just some bio-weapon, she's a person for chrissake...!"

"Everyone has a role to play, Brian. We don't choose it, we just play it when the time comes. On this ship, Alice is no more human than the mobile suit she flies."

Brian surged past her in anger and stormed out of the room, leaving all of them in an awkward silence for a few long moments. Ryo started to follow him out, but stopped at the door and turned around to a room full of somewhat embarrassed officers. "I'm just curious... do all of you feel the same way?" Glances passed from one person to the next, everyone looking to the next person to see just who would answer the question. "Is that all she is to this crew? Just... just cannon fodder for some big operation?"

Captain Shiden sighed and stared at his knees. "I know it's a shitty deal, Lieutenant, but we have no choice but to play the cards we've been dealt..."

"So why do you have to use her like some kind of machine? She has feelings, you know, she's still a person..."

"Conner and Miranda don't have that choice." Naomi was mumbling to herself, but just loud enough for Ryo to hear her. "The Titans have taken everything away from me. My family, my friends, my dignity..." She looked up suddenly with tears in her eyes, "All I have left is my life. I can never get back what they took from me, but with Alice as my weapon, I can make them pay for the lives they've destroyed."

"And to hell with Alice's life, right Naomi?"

"You just don't understand." Naomi's shoulders sagged and she stared at the floor again. "You don't understand anything."

The room fell silent again, this time a dead silence as if the entire world had suddenly stopped. Everyone in the room felt their hearts beating slower and their lungs taking in a thicker atmosphere than usual, but in another moment, Ryo and Naomi were the only two people in the otherwise crowded room.


	14. Chapter 13: Worst Case Scenario

_So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs. _  
- Elbert Hubbard

* * *

  
  


**Chapter 13: Worst Case Scenario**  
_  
- March 27, UC 0084 -   
- 1740 hours (CST) - _   
Brian was pleased to find that Kelly was only half right. This new core booster was bulky, VERY bulky, and its maneuvering and handling were reminiscent of a flying brick. It was the length of a mobile suit, laden with missile launchers, beam guns, and one gigantic beam cannon on a fixed hard point under the right wing-route that accounted for nearly a third of the booster's weight. Such a truly massive flying machine shouldn't theoretically be capable of flight, except for one tiny detail Kelly had neglected to mention to him... 

Brian pushed the throttles forward and immediately felt the acceleration slam him back into his seat and crush the air out of his lungs. The awesome power of the fighter's engines was terrifying to think about, especially for someone strapped into the cockpit forced to fly the thing in a combat test. The rocket motors continued to thrust the core booster higher into space, rising up and away from the lunar landscape far below. Four satellite dummy targets maneuvered around high above him against the background of stars and his computer began tracking each of them for a hard kill. "901, here. I'm about to commence a test of the new beam cannon." 

Kelly checked his computers and responded from an ops station on the bridge, "Data recorders standing by." 

Brian set the beam cannon to full power and waited for the first target to come into range, almost a hundred kilometers up now from where his fighter was still ascending. Finally the computer registered a target lock and he powered up the cannon for the first time. "Target locked..." He flipped the safety cover off the top of the stick, "... Firing now!" His thumb pressed the button and in an instant his cockpit flooded with a blinding red light. The beam cannon flared into existence and fired out a massive stream of mega particles into the darkness of space, blotting out the stars for a few moments just with the overwhelming glare. It struck the first test target dead-on and vaporized it in a millisecond, and with such a massive discharge of energy ripped apart the one next to it in the same blast. Brian waited a moment for his eyes to re-adjust, then switched to the smaller beam guns and fired several quick blasts as soon as he had his targets. He saw two explosions in the distance and recognized two direct hits, something that more than impressed him from this range. "Gunnery test completed, all targets destroyed." 

"Confirmed. So far, we're at 82% target accuracy." 

"Is that good?" 

Kelly glanced at the numbers on his pocket notebook and nodded. "For a core booster, that's remarkable." 

Brian checked his velocity and altitude, seeing his speed already well past lunar escape velocity and his altitude already much too high to just turn around. By now he was just about where they expected him to be. "I'm on something of a shallow orbit right now..." 

"Raise the nose four degrees and fire up your engines for one minute. That'll take you right into the next test zone. There's six targets at the next one and five at the others in your orbit. Use missiles on this one and the second to last one." 

Brian raised the nose and started to adjust his course, and once he did his computer was already registering heat sources from the six test targets. "Targets in sight, three hundred kilometers distance." 

"Charge that bigaass beam cannon and get ready for another firing..." 

Naomi was watching the entire test on the main monitor in the front of the bridge, looking over Kelly's shoulder from time to time to get a look at the test data. She hadn't expected much from this new weapon, but what she was seeing now was definitely a pleasant surprise. "That Anaheim Electronics sure lives up their promises, don't they?" 

Captain Shiden chuckled and sipped his coffee mug. "They assimilated all the old Zeon manufacturers after the war. They say the guy that designed this core booster was part of the Big Zam team during the war." 

Naomi grinned. "That's a hell of a thing to put on a résumé." 

"You're not kidding. I just wish they could have finished the mobile suit this thing was built for." 

Naomi thought for a moment about the stats Anaheim had given them when they delivered the core booster. "The GP00?" 

"The Titans pulled out of their contract and Anaheim had to scrap it to cover their losses." 

Kelly glanced over his shoulder with sudden interest, "That's not what I heard." 

Lieutenant Browning glanced down from his radar station above the Captain's chair, "What did you hear?" 

"I heard they sold it to somebody for a garage-sale price and called it a day. It aint worth much without the core booster, basically it's just a fancy ground type." 

"Either way the list of customers..." The comm. panel on the captain's chair started beeping and he picked up the handset and listened for just a moment, "... Understood." He set the handset down again and turned around to face everyone else in the room. "Lieutenant Wilson, you might wanna head down to the infirmary." 

"Is he awake?" 

"Uh huh." 

"Right." Naomi started for the hatch at the rear of the bridge, but turned back and slowed down just long enough to see Brian's beam cannon fire off another discharge and sweep away three test targets at once with a single blast. "Kelly, keep me informed about the test results, okay?" 

"Sure thing, Lieutenant." 

Naomi tapped the door panel and stopped for a moment, trading a quick glance with Captain Shiden and Lieutenant Holland. Both of them nodded slightly, a silent indication that all of them were thinking the exact same thing at that moment. Satisfied, she closed the door behind her and started for the elevator to the infirmary. _Another ace in the hole. I'm definitely starting to like our chances..._  
  
  
_- 1812 hours (CST) - _   
The Montblanc's radar screen lit up in a fury of thermal warnings and energy readings from across the spectrum, a brief microcosm of the hell that was about to break loose. The ship's helmsman had just enough time to turn the ship and fire the engines, avoiding the worst of it for sure; still, the stream of mega particles washing over the port side of the hull knocked the ship aside like a tin can in a gale. The cruiser Somalia was just a step behind them, returning fire with its missile launchers trying to deter the Titans ships from moving forward. 

Captain Henken Bekner clung to the side of his chair as the ship bucked from the impact, then ground his teeth in frustration as the damage reports came over the radio. "Jefferson, where's my radio?! Get those Titans ships on the comm. right now!" 

The frantic radio officer was almost close to tears. "Minovsky particles are too thick! I had a laser line through but they're not responding for some reason!" 

"SHIT!" Henken looked at the image on the main screen, the three Titans warships in a battle formation a few thousand kilometers distant. He still couldn't tell what they were after, with no military targets in the area save the old floating dock the Montblanc had just come out of when the Titans opened fire. Normally he would have tactfully moved out of their way... "Put another shot across their bow! Try and get their attention!" 

"Another warning shot, aye sir..." The gunnery officer was near giving up, but he relayed the orders all the same and the ships main guns unleashed another salvo towards the Titans ships. The beams crossed each other just below the hull of the largest ship, forming a flare that blinded the gunners there for easily half a minute. The two escort cruisers aimed and returned fire again, this time with more accuracy, one of them scoring a direct hit only a few dozen meters forward of the bridge. 

A fireball gushed up from inside the hull and lapped at the armor around the main bridge, fading again to a haze from oxygen and moisture rushing out of the ship before the breached compartment sealed itself. Henken felt his heart thumping in his chest, and then stomped his foot down. "Forward guns, target that lead ship! Blow it out of the sky!" 

The gunnery officer almost cheered with joy. "With pleasure sir! Setting target now..." 

In just another moment both of the main guns opened up, firing off twin blasts of mega particles. The Somalia followed suit, redirecting its missile launchers and particle cannons for direct fire instead of simply going off in front of the Titans as a warning. All converged on the largest ship in the pack... the missiles detonated far short of the ship and all but one of the beams missed their target. The one that did impact struck something a hundred meters forward of the hull, and whatever that object was it was now charging towards them riding flames from its verniers. 

"Ops, what the hell is that? It's too fast to be a mobile suit..." 

"Its too big to be a missile Captain... and besides that, it deflected one of our beams!" 

Henken paused a moment in indecision, then stomped his boot again on the footrest, "Evasive action! Give me blanket cover fire in five seconds, then release decoys!" 

The Montblanc turned hard to the starboard and fired its engines, and the Somalia, misreading their actions, moved forward to cover their retreat. It fired all of its beam cannons and missiles towards the onrushing object, following up with a barrage from the point defense guns. The machine dodged back and forth between beams and missiles until it was close enough, then paused for just a moment in space... 

What looked like a giant glowing fire hose spray of mega particles exploded from the torso, striking dead center of the bow and pushing through it like a finger through a block of clay. The forward half of the hull vanished into a tremendous fireball, and a series of smaller beams from the mobile suit's arms quickly chopped the remainder of the ship to bits. 

Captain Bekner watched on the monitor with his jaw hanging open, the ship's rear turrets trying desperately to deter whatever strange mobile weapon had made fast work of the Somalia. Then in the next instant, the mobile suit moved again, charging right through the expanding wreckage of the dead Salamis cruiser towards the floating dock; Henken watched on the monitor with a strange fascination as a dozen tiny lights fell away from the mobile suit, swarmed to positions all around the dock and then began blasting it from all sides with pulse lasers as the mobile suit fired blast after blast into the side with beam cannons. In a matter of moments the dock was in flames, another moment and the outer skin collapsed and the entire facility came flying apart in a blazing inferno. 

Everyone watching felt sickened; Ensign Jefferson remembered the little girl he'd given his candy bar before the ship left the port, barely more than three years old... then his consol lit up like a Christmas tree as the Titans ships hailed on all frequencies. "Captain, they're signaling!" 

"Oh NOW they wanna talk... let's hear them out Jefferson." 

The image on screen changed and Henken was greeted by a somewhat familiar face. "Hello Bek. Nice to see you back in action after the Konpei Island fiasco." 

Henken almost spat on the monitor for his seat. "Bosque, you son of a bitch! That dock was a civilian target! There's..." 

"What dock? I don't see any dock... tell you what I do see though: a Federation warship opening fire on a Titans patrol group conducting a field test of a new mobile weapon. This constitutes treason, Captain, and is punishable by death..." 

Henken waved his hand and signaled Jefferson to clear his monitor. "Main engines, give me full power! Get into the Shoal Zone and fill the sky with decoys!" 

"Aye Cap... enemy mobile suit approaching!" 

"What?!" The monitor changed again, showing the same mobile suit that had finished with the dock charging towards them with the fire of hell burning in its green eyes. He could barely make out the shape of it, only that it was quite a bit larger than a typical mobile suit and many times faster than the fastest space craft he'd ever seen. "Full barrage! Bring that thing down before it gets in range!" 

The Montblanc's missiles and defense turrets lit up the sky with a fury, but it did nothing even to slow the mobile suit down at all. It slowed on its charge and lined up a shot, a panel opened on its chest and its main beam cannon started charging for another devastating blast... 

Then at the last moment, the beam cut off, the mobile suit seemed to stagger in space, then started flying off in what appeared no particular direction, zigzagging back and forth apparently at random. 

On the bridge of the Dogos Gaia, Admiral Carter watched the monitors and felt his heart sink. "Oooookay... what's wrong now? 

Dr. Adams looked at the data and frowned. "Damn... it's a system malfunction. IFF recognition cycled back to default." 

"So?" 

"So she's reading the Montblanc as a friendly ship now. She's off now, searching the area looking for a target." 

Carter watched with a mix of amazement and disappointment as the Flash Gundam moved around with ease within the Montblanc's defensive barrage. Had the pilot had a nickel's with of common sense, she probably would have realized that the ship she was now trying to support was in fact shooting right at her. "Can we send out Conner?" 

Dr. Adams shook his head. "It's a bad idea at this point. They're still..." 

"Adams, they're not much use to us if we can only deploy them one at a time." 

"Yes sir, I know that. We're working on it, just give us some time." 

Carter sighed and set his hands on the back of his consol. "Damn it all... send the RTB signal and bring her back in." 

Captain Bosque walked up beside the Admiral and grinned slightly. "So our little experiment still has a few bugs, Carter?" 

"A few. It's brand new, Bosque, give it some time." 

"Time is something we have plenty of, it would seem." He started for the rear hatch of the bridge with a cat's grin on his face. "I'll take the Brunei and finish off the Montlanc. I suppose you'll be heading back to Konpei Island?" 

"No, actually. The Dogos Gaia will be stopping over on Luna first. You might as well take the Zaire with you, we won't be needing it." 

Bosque chuckled as he left the bridge. "If you insist. Give my regards to Padre Pedophile." 

Carter laughed out loud as the hatch closed behind Bosque, then watched for a few moments on the monitor as the Montblanc disappeared behind a cloud of decoys and colony wreckage. He sighed wistfully. "Captain Bekner was a damn fine officer too. What a waste..."  
  
  
_- 1845 hours (CST) - _   
Lieutenant Swanson collapsed heavily into his chair at the pilot's table and searched the familiar faces all around him for a long moment, smiling slightly but shyly like a child meeting his classmates on the first day of school. Everyone at the table stared back at him and waited for him to say something, all of them sensing the semi-awkward atmosphere of the situation. No one could think to say anything, and the painful silence between them went on for what seemed like hours until finally the youngest among them took the initiative, "Wow, man. I'm blind and even I think you look like shit." 

Eric laughed gently and patted Alice on the back. "Makes sense.... I feel like shit." 

"You remember what happened to you?" Mike asked, the awkwardness of the situation finally lifting from his shoulders. 

Eric stared distantly for a few moments, then shook his head slowly. "Just a few random images. A blue mobile suit, a demolition chain... it's just enough for me to guess. I got killed, didn't I?" 

"You're lucky to be alive, you stupid asshole." Lucy patted his shoulder leaned up to him almost sisterly. "Think you'll be okay? We're really missing you on the squad." 

"Gimme a day or two, I'll manage." Finally one more image popped into his head, "Where's Chase? He never misses meals, not even on duty." 

In perfect unison, everyone at the table dropped their heads just a bit. Ryo and Naomi traded quick glance to decide who would tell him, but before either of them could decide Alice took initiative again, "Chase didn't make it." 

It took about five seconds for Alice's words to sink into Eric's still-throbbing skull, at which point he came half out of his chair in surprise, "Chase...? How'd it happen?" 

"That damn sniper again. He and Rico were trying to flank him, but he pulled a fast one and nailed Chase before we could bring in the kill shot." 

Lieutenant Dyson nodded in agreement. "That guy's fast, but he can't aim and move at the same time. Alice got him at close range but the bastard managed to eject before..." 

"What do you mean Alice? You mean Lucy?" 

Naomi chuckled. "He means Alice, Lieutenant. She's been doing pretty well in the Mudrock lately." 

Eric looked at Alice and did everything in his power to keep from exploding in laughter. "Rugrat's been filling in for me, huh? Thanks a bunch, Alice!" 

Naomi chuckled again. "She has fifteen kills, Eric, not counting fighters and support craft. It's just like I told you, even a blindfolded nine..." 

"Thirteen." Alice corrected. 

"... Thirteen year old could beat your kill score while you were sleeping." 

Eric stared at Alice for a long moment and then shook his head in disgust. "I spend three and a half weeks in a goddamn coma and suddenly everybody's a comedian." 

Alice growled in annoyance. "I told you he wouldn't believe you." 

"Okay, I stand corre..." 

The lighting in the room changed and the scramble alarm blazed throughout the corridors of the ship, screaming through the mess hall and whipping everyone at the pilot's table into a frenzied dash out of the room. Alice brought up the rear towed by Brian, and Eric followed right behind her out of sheer habit. 

Sadly, it wasn't until the mobile suit pilots finally arrived at the MS deck that the one rather large detail of the ship's in-port stay finally occurred to them, and Lucy was the first to say what all of them were thinking: "Shit! There's no mobile suits...!" 

"We didn't have time to load em!" Kelly dropped down from a catwalk above their heads and landed with a gentle tap on the deck right in front of them. "I've got a team in the dock fueling them, we need about ten minutes to get ready! I'll try and find you a weapon, but I can't make any promises...!" 

Naomi pushed past the group to the front of the MS deck, started a lift to the only mobile suit left in the portside bay, "Is Alex ready?" 

"He was born ready!" 

"I'm going out! Have Alice follow in Mudrock as soon as she..." The mobile suit launch door opened at the end of the bay, and immediately the Mudrock Gundam appeared at the end of it with a beam rifle in hand, "... is ready." 

Alice stepped into the bay and grabbed her shield off the storage rack, "Naomi, there's an outbound vacation ship taking fire about forty miles from here! Captain says anyone who can get a mobile suit should launch when they can!" 

Naomi stepped into the Alex and powered it up, stepped out of its maintenance stall and sprinted out of the MS deck to join Mudrock. "Brian, send up the core booster if you can get it out! The rest of you, move your asses!"  
  
  
_- 1850 hours (CST) - _   
Admiral Marquise' face looked haggard on the viewscreen, as if the man had aged ten years since Duncan had left on this mission. There was a lot of activity behind him, officers and civilians alike rushing about to their business of what was certainly the biggest emergency they could fathom. "They're being completely unreasonable, Duncan. I've told them a thousand times but they just won't listen. The Federation Fleet from Luna-II has setup a blockade line around Side 7 now and they're sending inspectors trying to force their way into the colony... you have any idea how much trouble you've caused?" 

Duncan sighed at the monitor. "Trouble caused me, Pop, not the other way around." 

"Don't be a smart aleck, Dunc..." 

"I'm not. It's the truth. You honestly think the Titans are gonna leave you alone if we surrender to them? It's not even about us, they're just using the Titov as an excuse." 

Admiral Marquis shook his head slowly. "Our dealings with the Titans have been reasonable thus far. We have no reason to believe they would dishonor their agreement. Just consider..." 

"If they're being so reasonable, why are they holding YOU responsible for a rouge unit you don't even control anymore? What makes you think that turning ourselves in would be the end of it?" 

Vanessa had been listening to the entire conversation in silence from the corner of the room, but seeing it was going nowhere she walked towards the monitor. 

"Duncan, did you learn anything from what happened at Riah? Those colonies are occupied territory now, all because the Titans gave them their demands and they refused to meet them. All they demand from us is..." 

Vanessa shoved Duncan out of the way and looked into the monitor. "We will surrender to them. Then they'll demand updates on our fleet dispositions. Then they'll restrict where we can operate. Then they'll have inspectors making sure we don't produce the wrong kinds of weapons. To support all this, they'll probably build a base in our own colony too. And after that, more sanctions, restrictions, regulations, inspections, they'll order limitations on our troop sizes... did you know the Republic of Zeon is prohibited from manufacturing mobile suits with beam weaponry?" 

Admiral Marquis leaned forward with urgency, "Vanessa, you're taking this a bit too far...!" 

"No Father, this has already gone too far. The Federation is the self-appointed policeman of the universe... I am a Zeon! I don't take orders from any goddamn Feddies! They want me to cooperate, they can make a deal like everyone else! But if they thank they can make demands like they have any authority over me, they can kiss my spacenoid ass! Relay THAT message to Jamitov for me!" Vanessa tapped the control panel and the monitor faded to black. She took just a moment to calm herself, rubbed her fingers through her hair, then glanced over and Duncan, grinning up at her with a stubborn streak in his eyes. "What?" 

"You're not very graceful, are you sis?" 

Vanessa chuckled and turned toward the hatch. "Unlike you, Deuce, I follow my heart, and not my head." 

"Don't get me wrong, Sis. There's nothing wrong with following your heart, but if your head isn't in it you'll follow it off a cliff." 

Vanessa pressed the door release and gestured for Duncan to follow. "So what are you saying then? Follow your heart but keep it in check?" 

"I'm saying you should go where the spirit leads you..." Duncan followed her into the corridor and took a handrail in front while she followed behind, "Just don't go blindly." 

Vanessa chuckled again. "Deuce, you're wise beyond your years, you know that?" 

"Nah. That's common sense." He turned left at the entrance to the hangar and overlooked the rebuilding efforts. Four Hercules mobile suits and a pair of GM Customs, all in the dark-green paint scheme of the A.E.U.G. lined the walls of the Titov's MS bay. "You gotten used to these machines yet?" 

"Actually..." She paused for a moment to look at the GM Sniper, then grinned. "As much as I hate to admit it..." 

"I know what you mean. Say what you want about the Feddies, but OH BOY can they build a mobile suit." 

Vanessa stared for a few moments and then frowned. "My Rickdom is faster." 

"The GM turns faster." 

"My Rickdom has thicker armor." 

"The GM is has stronger armor." 

Vanessa grinned. "I lost my virginity in a Rickdom." 

Duncan grinned back. "You lost it to a G.M.." 

"I did?" 

"Yeah, a grease monkey." Duncan pushed off the deck towards his GM Custom, checking over the beam rifle and machine guns stored in racks next to it. In all the simulations and test flights he'd run, this machine hadn't performed all that well... but even a young one like he had seen a potential there even his ReGelg lacked. And then a new thought occurred to him: "Ya know, since we're filling in with the AEUG anyway, we might as well pick up the fat boy from Luna." 

Vanessa shook her head and shouted back from the catwalk, "Not just yet. This little posse only has half a dozen ships and a handful of mobile suits. So far, we're the only REAL warship." 

Duncan frowned. "That'll change." 

"You think so?" 

"It has to. We can't fight the Titans with heavy cruiser and pack of freighters." He popped open the cockpit hatch and slid into the mobile suit, powered up the main system again for another round of simulations. _Alright you Feddy-made piece of shit, let's see what you've got..._  
  
  
_- 1854 hours (CST) - _   
The cruise ship lost altitude as its rockets failed, falling thousands of feet with its maneuvering thrusters trying desperately to slow its fall. It crashed against the lunar dust and slid to rest at the edge of a large crater only a few dozen miles from Granada's city limits while the attacking mobile suits descended on it from above. The three MS-57 Hercules mobile suits kicked up the dust around it with heavy machine guns for no other reason but to stir up the passengers, while the commander's GM Sniper Custom-II hovered overhead and watched for their primary target. He finally spotted a pair of heat sources approaching from over the horizon, charging towards them under full thrust in what he was sure was a desperate rage. He dropped the telescopic visor and zoomed in to maximum; two Gundams, both older models, one of them mounting a pair of somewhat menacing shoulder cannons. "It's here... Heinz, Gunther, we have incoming. Dieter, Yosef, get ready to pounce." 

The two Hizack Customs hiding in craters nearby armed their beam rifles and crouched down lower, ready to leap from concealment and pounce on the two Gundams as they came into range. Even beyond them, unseen to both parties, four more mobile suits lay in wait with their own weapons armed... Lieutenant Monsha checked the power setting on the EMP rifle one more time to make sure everything was functioning properly. 

Alice and Naomi both came into range at the same time, both locked on to the mobile suits attacking the cruise ship and opened fire with a blast from their beam rifles. The three Hercules mobile suits evaded and fired back with heaven machine guns, all three rising into the sky on verniers backing away with guns blazing. The two Gundams landed on the dust short of the cruise ship, then rose up into the lunar sky again and fired another salvo from the beam rifles. The three Hercules maintained their retreat, shooting as they went, flying backwards into the distance. "They're running for it, Naomi! Should we chase them?" 

"Negative. The cruise ship's badly damaged. We should..." Naomi sensed a sudden surge of pressure and reversed her thrusters, changing direction on a dime to avoid a blast from a beam rifle by a margin of only a few meters. She spun around and fired back, hitting the dust right where the Hizack had been half a second earlier. "It's a setup! Send up a flare to the Tarawa!" 

Alice barely had time to raise her hand upwards to fire it before the other Hizack began blasting away at her with its own beam rifle. She dodged back and forth to avoid it, finally landing on the lunar surface and taking cover behind a small hill in the middle of an otherwise flat plane. "They couldn't have set this up any better... no places to find cover here!" 

Naomi planted her feet on the ground and locked onto one of the Hizacks, but before she could fire a spray of shells rocked against her armor from the distance... the three Hercules mobile suits had already reversed course and were moving to surround her, and behind them came the GM Sniper blasting away with a beam spray gun. "Why me..." She tried to block the worst of the machineguns with her shield and leaned on the throttles to keep her suit moving. Somehow the Hercules suits and the GM Sniper were keeping pace with her; the signs of experienced pilots. "Alice they're trolling us! Let's retreat..." Another barrage of cannon fire rippled across her armor behind her and the Alex fell to the ground for a moment, rolled with its momentum, then rose into the sky again under full thrust. "Alice can you hear me?" 

Alice traded fire with the two Hizacks, dodging three shots from them for every one she could fire back. At about this moment she became aware that the enemy suits were intentionally driving the two of them farther and farther apart; with the minovksy jamming between them, Naomi's voice started to fade in the speakers. "Naomi, these guys aren't amateurs like the rest of them! We need support right now!" There was no response on the radio, and Mudrock dropped down into a crater as another burst of beam fire from the two Hizacks blazed over her head. "NAOMI!" 

Then she sensed it, a familiar kind of pressure she had felt somewhere once before... she spun around in time to see four Titans mobile suits dropping down into the crater with her, spreading out to surround her on all sides, each carrying a different weapon. Lieutenant Bate chuckled over the radio. "Hey ya little brat! Looks like Big Brother aint here to bail you out this time!" 

"Son of a..." Alice dropped both cannons into position and fired both barrels at Bates' mobile suit in three quick salvos, then fired her verniers and kept on the move as the others returned fire. 

Bate caught the first shells with his arm shield, then leapt out of the path of the others as they exploded in the dust behind him. "Little bitch has a bad temper... Adel, New Guy, get her to stop moving!" 

Lieutenant Osborne had just enough time to mutter a "Stop calling me New Guy," before he circled around behind her and opened fire with his machine gun. Monsha hung back just a bit with the EMP rifle, hoping and waiting for a clean shot at a stationary target... 

Alice reversed backwards and surprised Adel, drawing her beam saber quickly and slicing through his left arm and shield as she passed. He turned and fired off his bazooka and point blank range, but the shell passed through empty space and struck the crater walls as the Mudrock spun around behind her. She was about to deliver the death blow with her beam saber, but a burst from Bate's machine gun racked over her back armor and send her back on the move. 

Monsha growled into his radio. "Shit! It's three against one and you guys are getting your asses kicked!" 

"Damn thing's too fast! Get in here and do something why dontcha!" Osborne shouted back. 

"New Guy, you better watch it before I plug you along with the brat! You want me to...!" One of the Hizacks from the first unit flew over Monsha's head, passing barely two meters over him on the way over with its beam saber in one hand and rifle in the other. It charged towards the Mudrock, firing blast after blast from the rifle as it closed in, ripping huge chunks out of the lunar dust under the Gundam's feet as it came near. 

Alice spun around just in time to catch its beam saber with her own, locking up there with it for just a few moments. Monsha's eyes widened. "GOTCHA!" He raised the EMP rifle and pulled the trigger... 

A blast of energy like a sustained lighting bolt shout out of the rifle, arcing directly between the Hizack and the Gundam and pushing them away from each other. Both of their beam sabers died immediately, but when Alice tried to draw the other saber she felt the suit's left arm suddenly seize up. "What the hell?! Work dammit...!" Just a moment of hesitation and Monsha fired again, striking the Gundam dead center with the rifle and bombarding it with electromagnetic waves. The systems of the suit were untouched by it, but one after another the Gundam's joints ground to a halt as the magnetic coatings on all reversed charges, overloaded, or otherwise just disappeared completely. 

Mudrock raised its beam rifle and fired towards Monsha's suit, but just raising the arm sent a shower of sparks erupting from every joint and every seal. By the time she could fire in his direction, he was already well out of the way. "Shit! Naomi I need help!" 

Monsha fired again, this time striking the head of the Gundam and knocking out all of her sensors. A power surge ran through the system, down the cables of the psycommu interface straight into her brain...  


******  


"There, up ahead! Locking on!" The combat computer highlighted the target and set a crosshair over the enemy suit, locking weapons with a swiftness Lucy was not prepared for. The beam rifle rose into position, and a window opened on her panoramic monitor showing the enemy suit frozen in her sights. "Woah... nice!" She pulled the trigger twice and fired off two blasts, both of which struck the Hercules mobile suit dead center and blew it to bits where it stood. The other two spun to face her, only to be struck down after a moment by a combined barrage from Mike and Ryo's beam rifles and Brian's small beam guns. 

The GM Sniper turned and started to retreat, but as soon as it boosted upwards Naomi's Gundam appeared before it and sliced it in half with a wave of its beam rifle. She landed clumsily in the center of the plane, with both halves of the dead GM landing in front and behind her. She took a moment to catch her breath as the three mobile suits came up and landed in front of her; Mike was piloting one of the new model GMs, with Ryo and Lucy both in new mobile suits she found very familiar, staring into her through the pink glow of their mono-eyes. "So these are the new models we're getting?" 

Lucy nodded with a soft grin. "The new Galbaldy Betas. They're a little different from the Alphas you're used to, Lieutenant." 

"No doubt." Naomi looked around for a moment and suddenly felt very nervous. Suddenly she became aware of a slight difference in the back of her mind... she could no longer sense Alice. "Mudrock got separated in the fight. Spread out and find it!" 

Brian flew overhead with the core booster and banked sharply to one side, following the trail of fresh craters over the horizon. "Got tracks... due East, towards that big crater!" 

All four mobile suits fired verniers and charged in that direction, rising high over the cratered surface until they could see flashes of explosions down in the crater where the trail ended. Brain raised altitude a bit, then dipped the nose and fired both of his beam guns down in a massed salvo, scattering whatever was down there in all directions. The shooting stopped immediately, and another few moments the Tarawa's mobile suits landed at the lip of the crater and looked down onto the scene there. 

Three Zaku mobile suits and a single Rickdom lay scattered in pieces on the other side of the crater, while closer to them four GM Quells and two Hizacks stood in a somewhat awkward formation, with two of the GMs kneeling down, apparently suffering from battle damage. The commander's GM spun around immediately and faced them defensively, then lowered its rifle and stood at attention. "Lieutenant Alfa A. Bate, Titans 04th team." 

Naomi stepped down into the crater and slid down in front of them, "Lieutenant Wilson, 108th mob..." Just beyond them she sighted the Mudrock Gundam, lying on its side near the center of the crater with fragments of its armor scattered around it. She felt a chill run down her spine. "What happened here?" 

"Sorry Lieutenant Wilson, but we got here too late. Looks like they drew your comrade in here and blindsided him with a HEAT round. I doubt he even saw it coming." 

Lucy looked around the crater and surveyed the situation... "Sure looks that way," It looked like a setup. Everything about the scene looked fake, staged... everything except the wrecked Gundam lying in the center of the crater. "And the pilot?" 

One of the Hizacks was already examining the Gundam, rolled it onto its back for them to see the front of it... the section of armor around the cockpit hatch had been blown wide open, clear sign of an impact from an armor piercing shell. "I don't think he had time to bail out." 

Everyone watching felt the Lunar gravity triple and their hearts drop into their feet. Naomi struggled for a few moments with the tears in her eyes. "W-we'll take it back t-to the Tarawa, Lieutenant. Thanks for your help." 

"Sorry we couldn't do more, Lieutenant..." The pilot in the Hizack said dryly. "Coast Guard units coming to take care of the cruise ship. We're returning to base." 

Ryo and Brian both recognized the voice in the Hizack, but on account of their present company they held their tongues and switched to a private channel between the two of them, "Is that who I think it is? What the hell is he doing here?" 

Hovering high above in the core booster, Brian looked down on the Hizack standing over the Gundam. "Question is, why is Dieter Cunningham piloting a Titans mobile suit?" 

"You don't think...?" 

"I'm trying not to, Ryo. It's the worst case scenario." 

"Worse than Alice being dead?" 

"Yep." He toggled his computer to missiles and locked all of them onto Dieter's Hizack as it went on its way, waiting for the one false move that would be his excuse to blow him to kingdom come. "But keep this between us for now. After all, if Alice really was dead..." 

"Yeah, I know." 

Lucy and Mike dropped down on either side of the Mudrock and lifted it off the Lunar dust, giving all of them a clear view into the gaping hole in the torso for the first time; the shell had demolished the core block, almost blowing straight through the armor on the other side. Just the image of it hit Naomi like a hammer, "God I can't believe it..." 

She fought back tears for another few moments until Ryo's mobile suit came up next to her and placed its hand on her shoulder, coming through her radio on skin-talk, "Naomi..." 

"What are we gonna do now, Ryo?" She said, her voice breaking slightly, "Oh God, what are we gonna do...?!" 

"It's not over, Naomi, not yet. Let's get back to the Tarawa and look at our options, okay?" 

"But..." 

"C'mon, Lieutenant." We have to go.  
  
  
_- 2215 hours (CST) - _   
The phone rang out in a dark hotel suite in Granada, breaking the relative silence with its harsh chirping until, at long last, the clammy hand of an Admiral picked it up and held it to his ear, "Dyson here." 

The voice on the other end was Commander Passaroff's, and he sounded both nervous and satisfied at the same time. "Admiral, I have the report from Bates' team. The operation went down exactly as we planned." 

Dyson smiled. "That's good news. Any causalities?" 

"Lieutenant Monsha was injured in the operation... we're not really sure how. We think it's some kind of newtype phenomenon, might have happened when he blew out the psycommu system." 

Dyson's smile turned into a mischievous grin. "How is he now?" 

"Complains of headaches, but at least he's conscious again." 

"Good. Anything else to report?" 

Passaroff paused for a few moments, "The Dogos Gaia is en-route to rendezvous with is to pick up the... um... component." 

"I see. Give Admiral Carter my regards—" 

"About the component sir..." Passaroff cut him off suddenly, "Admiral, if you don't mind me saying so, I personally am very uncomfortable with this situation. I think you should know, some of the crew feels the same way." 

Dyson chuckled. "I'll take that under advisement, Commander. Just don't let yourself forget that despite your rank and position, I don't give a horse's ass how you feel about this operation or the situation it involves. You are to carry out your duties, Commander. Is that clear?" 

Passaroff sighed on the other end and then responded back, "Yes sir, crystal clear." 

"Good. Keep me informed." Dyson hung up the phone, walked back across the darkness of the suite, into the large bedroom with the canvas-top bed. The girl rolled slowly onto her side, naked except for the nylon chords binding her hands and ankles and the old rag stuffed in her mouth. She could barely move, covered in bruises from head to toe, but even teetering on the edge of consciousness she was only too aware of her predicament as the Admiral returned to the room, "Guess what darling!" He said with a warm smile, "Everything worked out perfectly. Better than we imagined in fact. Isn't that wonderful?" 

One of her eyes was swollen shut from the previous day's ordeal, but through the other, clouded with tears, she could see Dyson unbutton his shirt and hang it on the bedpost next to her. She moaned softly in anxiety, and Dyson smiled again, "I feel like celebrating. Would you like some ice cream?" The girl stared at him for a long moment, tears running down her cheeks, frozen in terror, afraid to imagine what else this man could have in store for her. After a long pause, Dyson seemed to grow annoyed; he reached into the pocket of his jacket, hanging by a hook from the wall and took his field knife in hand. "I asked you a question, dear. Would you like some ice cream?" 

This time she nodded, and returning to his gentle persona he put the knife back on the desk next to the bed. He didn't bother going back to the living room, this time just picked up the phone on the stand next to the bed, "Hello Room Service? Yes, this is Mr. Dyson in room 211. Got a little guest here with a craving for some strawberry ice cream... uh huh... ten minutes? Thank you very much. I also, I'd like you to bring up two large garbage bags please... for laundry, you know... of course, thank you." He hung up again, then went back to the desk and picked up the knife again. "Well now..." He said playfully, "Where were we?" 


	15. Chapter 14: Obedience

_Where in the world did you get the idea that God condemns your soul based on the understanding of a piece of paper? Does he smite his creations on a mere technicality? Daikun's vision is freedom from such mindless superstition. Let anyone who wants to know the truth understand that your deity, your mythology, all the world's religions combined are the way of the ancients to understand what the Contolist knows in his own heart: that heaven and hell are terms of evolution, that salvation is progress and damnation is oblivion... True, every newtype will taste of death, but in our comrades and our descendents, all newtypes find eternal life._  
- Alicia Robyn Cunningham

* * *

  
  


**Chapter 14: Obedience**

_- March 28, UC0084 –  
- 2230 hours (CST) -  
_ Captain Bekner frowned at the damage reports scrolling across his screens. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep up these efforts, or for that matter how long he could continue to hide from the Titans in the Shoal Zone before they finally put the death blow into them. More than half the ship had been sealed off from damages, and with the MS deck out of action the two surviving GMs had to be repaired outside the ship. The Montblanc itself was nestled up against the side of an asteroid, masking against the surface with its running lights and outer hatches sealed tightly, both mobile suits hiding behind the bulk as the repair crews replaced damaged armor panels.

Then good news, a report came in over the radio from fire control at last, "Bridge from Fire: starboard main gun and forward secondaries backin action."

Henken almost leapt for joy. "Great news, fire control! Any word on my missile bays?"

"Nothing good, sir. One of the magazines cooked off at that last run. Don't think we could repair the launchers without a few days in dry-dock."

Henken laughed at the irony of that. "We were just IN a dry-dock."

Then came a new signal, this time from one of the Ball pilots hiding as lookout on the other side of the asteroid, "Lefty to Montblanc, we've got incoming! Two Hizacks, search formation, closing fast!"

The ship was already at battle stations, there was no need to remind them. "Minovsky density?"

Jefferson checked his computer. "Still at maximum."

"If their mobile suits are here, the cruisers must be nearby..." He thought through possible scenarios, all his experience and everything he knew about Bosque Ohm and his tactics. The Hizacks would try and locate his position, then 'accidentally' give away the position of one of the cruisers. The other was undoubtedly waiting nearby, ready to pounce on the Montblanc when it came out to attack. As soon as he opened fire on one, the other would already be on his back... "Are the mobile suits ready for action?"

Jefferson checked the MS commander and then nodded back, "Unit Two and Three are standing by."

"Send them out. Have them ambush those Hizacks as soon as they get close to the asteroid..." and then another thought occurred to him, "Scratch that... GM unit, there's a section of colony wreckage at 22 kilometers moonward. Try to lead them away from it."

Everyone on the bridge turned and looked at him nervously. Even his gunnery officer had to comment, "Captain, that'll give away our position pretty easily."

"I know that. Even a rank amateur wouldn't setup an ambush so close to his hiding place. Hopefully, Bosque thinks I'm an amateur." Captain Bekner watched the two GMs rise slowly out of their concealment from behind the hull, carefully move around to the other side of the asteroid and crouch down in the shadows waiting to ambush their targets.

The cruiser Brunei was only a few dozen kilometers distant, moving forward, waiting for the Hizack squad to lead the Montblanc's mobile suits back towards them. Captain Bosque knew that his ship would appear to be isolated and vulnerable in space where it was, and that Captain Bekner wouldn't miss a chance to take out one of his attackers and possibly slip away in the confusion. He had the two Hizacks on his monitors, approaching something of a clearing between a fairly large asteroid and a gutted colony cylinder with both of its bay-blocks missing. _Perfect place to hide a ship,_ he mused, looking at his monitors, "Hizack unit, check out that colony wreckage at 24 kilometers moonward. If the Montblanc is in there, lead her back to us."

The two Hizacks changed direction towards the wrecked colony, all at once putting themselves directly in the sights of the two GMs crouched in the shadows of the asteroid. The pilot in Unit Two grinned, then locked his beam gun onto it and fired one blast. It hit one of the mobile suits in the vernier pack and sent it into a spin, and his next shot struck it dead on and destroyed it completely. At that the two GMs leapt from concealment, both firing with beam guns in an attempt to drive the Hizack away from the cylinder...

Bosque's mouth started to water. "You're mine, Bek... bring us in closer, helm! Open fire with all main guns and see if you can unmask him!" _That Bekner hasn't changed since the Academy. The man never knows when to retreat. _

The Brunei's main guns each fired a double blast into the colony wall, blowing away a massive section of the debris and sending fragments of metal scattering in every direction. It took Henken all of three seconds to trace the beams and figure out where the shooting was coming from, another three to figure out where the other cruiser was hiding. _He'll be close by... but he'll be in a position where he can catch me off guard..._

The second Hizack took a direct hit as it came close to the Brunei, and as soon as it was down the cruiser opened fire with all of its guns in an effort to keep the two mobile suits at bay. Bosque watched his guns pour fire into the colony wreck in powerful barrages, but as he cleared away more of the obstruction he started to grow impatient. "Dammit... even if he's not in that wreckage he should have tried to attack me by now... what is Benker doing out there?" As if an answer to his question, he happened to turn his head just in time to see all hell break loose in the distance just ahead and to port of the Brunei, right in the direction of where the Zaire was waiting to ambush the Montblanc. In just the time it took for the Montblanc's first shots to hit their target, Bosque realized he had just been had.

The main guns scored direct hits near the bow and amidships of the Zaire, and a blast from the secondary batteries hit the main bridge and blew open an entire section of the bulkhead there. In just the time it took for one attack, he had reduced the cruiser to a floating wreck, spitting fire from its insides and twisting painfully in space. "Who's in fire control now? Chief Sakura right?"

Lieutenant Jefferson turned and grinned. "The one and only."

"For shooting like that he gets a promotion and the rest of the beer ration..." Captain Bekner waited for the follow up salvo to finish off the Zaire's weapon systems, then breathed a quick sigh of relief. "Alright, the Brunei will be on us any minute! Fill the sky with decoys and lets get the hell out of here!"

The ship's helmsman didn't have to be told twice; with a touch of his consol and a surge of acceleration, the Montblanc's engines were carrying them through the shoal zone, away from the carnage of the now-wrecked Zaire, away from Bosque and the Titans, back into the abyss from whence they came. 

_  
- April 3, UC0084 –  
- 0810 hours (CST) -  
_ Lower Granada was a place of familiar sights and sounds for Lieutenant Naomi Wilson, perhaps the only place in the universe besides the Tarawa she could consider calling "home." She'd expected it would be exactly the way she had left it four years ago to join the military, but as she was seeing now the city had indeed changed quite a bit in her absence. And not for the better; there were four times as many people in the Basement as there had been before the war, and as was the trend in Lower Granada, not a single one of the new arrivals had anything that could be called a permanent residence. The saving grace of the city was that being underground, there was never any concern about foul weather... the homeless could live comfortably anywhere they could lay their heads. Some didn't even bother staying out of sight anymore.

Even the Burial Grounds had become a sanctuary for some of the lost souls of Lower Granada, but aside from a few tents and blankets strewn about the perpetually-empty parking lot the grounds appeared untouched by any human presence. On an average day a dozen or so people would be loitering nearby, wandering down memory lane with the ghost of comrades buried somewhere inside, but on the day of Alice's funeral they respectfully kept their distance until the crew had put the casket in the ground and the burial detail was dispersed. What little of her could be scrapped off the interior of the mobile suit had been collected over the past week and placed in a wooden box inside the casket, along with letters from the entire crew, and a copy of Alice's favorite book. 

All of those in attendance felt the weight of the world pressing down on them... all, it seemed, except Brian himself. Naomi could only guess that the reality of his sister's demise hadn't quite sunken in yet, and as the attendees dispersed she joined him before her tombstone and patted him on the shoulder. "Look," she began slowly, "I don't know if you can ever forgive me but..."

"We've been over this already, Lieutenant. I'm not blaming you, it wasn't your fault."

"But what if..." Naomi sagged and stared at her feet. "If I'd just been a better pilot..." 

"My sister would still be alive."

"Exactly. I let them separate us there's no excu—"

"Who's Anna Larson?" Brian cut her off abruptly, glancing over her shoulder at a tombstone across the driveway lined with hedges.

Naomi glanced back briefly and shrugged. "I don't know really..."

"Yes you do. You were looking at it when you came in. Who was she?"

She glanced back at the stone again, the grave that contained a likewise body-less casket and twice as many memories. "Just someone else I couldn't protect."

Brian nodded, understanding on only the most general terms. "You grew up around here didn't you?"

Naomi nodded slowly. "Mission District way over in on East Block."

"Hmmm..." Brian thought for a moment, then looked at her more carefully. "Me and Alice grew up in South Block. She spent the first eight years of her life in this little church-sponsored shelter before we managed to catch a shuttle to Riah."

"How'd you afford the ticket?"

Brian grinned. "Who said anything about a ticket?"

Naomi chuckled and grinned back. "Couldn't take anymore, huh? This place is quite the shithole..."

"The Federation likes it that way. If they don't wanna look at you anymore, they drop your ass in the Basement. All the Cunninghams were buried here too."

She glanced up at him with a curious glance, but in the same movement her eyes caught something far more familiar and far less comforting walking towards them from across the grounds. She didn't know why exactly, but seeing Admiral Dyson again under the lighting of Lower Granada sent a powerful chill down her spine. "Aren't you a bit late, Admiral?"

Dyson frowned and stared at the tombstone as he walked up to them, standing across from the still-open grave facing either of them. He sighed distantly, then shook his head muttering, "Poor thing... what a terrible tragedy..."

"A tragedy YOU caused." Naomi snapped automatically.

Dyson looked up and narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't be so critical, Baby Doll. I did everything I could to save that girl... yet I can't help asking what she was doing piloting that mobile suit in the first place? You're the commanding officer of the unit, surely you knew what was going on."

She knew when she was being baited, and she also knew that Dyson was on the exact same page as she was, despite his stance of ignorance. "By the time I knew what was happening, she was already dead." Dyson looked at her with an expression of annoyed skepticism, but as he was about to say something else Naomi added, "The units that ambushed us... they were new models, sir."

Dyson nodded. "Intelligence believes they were upgraded recently. Analysis of the wreckage suggests a group called AEUG..."

"No sir," Naomi said slowly, "They were Hizacks with Titan markings. Both of them."

Dyson sighed and shook his head. "I think you are mistaken, Lieutenant Wilson..."

"Like hell. You know what I'm talking about, Admiral. That ambush was a perfect setup. They knew our deployment, they knew our equipment, they even knew the weakness of the Gundam's magnetic coating. I could understand them guessing at the rest, but the Gundam's combat system... there's no way they could know that without inside information."

Dyson walked around the edge of the grave, brushed past a passive Lieutenant Anderson and grabbed Naomi by the elbow, pulling her off to the side to speak with her in relative private, "You're over-analyzing this situation, Lieutenant, and it's not helping you one bit." He hissed angrily into her ear, "We both know what this is about, and don't flatter yourself thinking you can outsmart me. I was in the business when you were still teething."

Naomi turned slowly, her hands clenching into fists. "Cause and effect, Dyson. You screw around with people long enough, eventually they draw the line somewhere..."

"Don't give me that self-righteous bullshit. You played with fire, you got burned. Get over it." Brian looked up slightly in their direction, and Dyson pulled her farther away so his voice wouldn't carry to him, "You're skating on thin ice Lieutenant, I don't know where you got the idea you could take ME on and win. Who the hell do you think you are anyway? Have you already forgotten where you came from?"

She yanked her arm away from his hand and just stopped herself from throwing a punch. "You will not get away with it."

"You go on telling yourself that, Baby Doll," Dyson gestured with his hand and pointed off to one side; only now did Naomi realize they were both standing right at the foot of Anna's grave, "I'm not one to forget people who try and double cross me... but since we've been through so much together, I'm giving you one last chance. Keep in mind, you go behind my back one more time..." He turned his head slowly and glowered down at the grave stone, "You'll be picking up where this little tramp left off. Do I make myself clear, Lieutenant?"

She stared into his eyes for a long moment, burning hatred flowing between them like a putrid river of fire... until someone came up behind Dyson and tapped him on the shoulder. The instant he turned, Brian slapped a small leather pouch against his chest with enough force to make him stumble back a step. "Do me a favor and hold onto that for me." Brian said dryly.

Dyson raised a brow in confusion. "What the hell for?"

"Alice wanted you to have it," Brian said flatly, "She said you'd get a kick out of it."

"Really? I'm surprised she even remembered me..." Dyson unbuttoned and opened the pouch and looked inside, stared at it for a few moments and then dumped the contents into his hand, a look of confusion on his face, "A Twinkie? What the hell is...?" When he looked up again, both of them were gone, both Brian and Naomi and the crew of the Tarawa, all vanished like ghosts in the fog. He looked around for a few moments, then shrugged blankly, stared at Alice's gift and then smirked. "Dumbass kids..." he said, tossing the pasty over his shoulder and turned to leave the cemetery with a head full of steam. 

_  
- 1203 hours (CST) -  
_ Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion... at every opportunity she had a chance to turn back... ever fiber of her being was screaming inside not to do this... but she did not stop, she could not stop. The children were all sitting contently on the rug before a buzzing TV screen, watching what could have been the very last showing of their favorite cartoons before the electric company killed their power. They were splitting a bowl of Nachos between them, the youngest of the three just barely old enough to be able to eat them._ Good_, she thought, _I won't have to look them in the eye._ She opened the door slowly, checked her pocket for her wallet and IDs, making sure to leave her keys on the hook next to the deadbolt. She would not be needing them again. It was Anna who first noticed her movements to depart, the others followed along and in an instant all three of them were on their feet. _No... no don't look at me..._ "Mommy's just going out for some milk. I'll be back in half an hour."

"Hurry back Momma!" Anna said with her strange southern accent, the one she would carry for the rest of her life. Gwen never did know where the girl picked it up, but like everything else in the house she had grown sickened by it. It served as only one last reminder why she had decided to do this in the first place... she slammed the door shut on the three children and walked down the hall, down the stairs, catching the bus just as it pulled up to the stop in front of their dilapidated building. She rode the bus all the way to the spaceport, all the way to the shuttle that would take here to Zum City, away from this nightmare life and three ignorant children who could think of nothing but themselves.

And when she stepped off the bus, her mind's eye changed... the same very same bus, the very same stop, almost 12 years later stopping to pick up a now-teenaged Anna Larson. The tickets in the girl's hand, the excitement in her eyes at seeing her mother again after so many years of wondering and waiting. Gwen had seen this all before, and her heart sank as she waited for the gruesome scene to play itself out; the man behind her with the duffle bag across his lap, all the telltale signs of a Feddy intelligence agent, reaching into the zipper section and fiddling around with a small dial looking something like a punch clock. He set the bag down under his seat and got off at the next stop, and as he left Gwen began screaming out at the top of her lungs as a warning. Anna couldn't hear her; she was 10,000 miles away by now, dancing in a strip club in Zum City. She tried screaming again in warning but her voice was silent in her daughter's ears and her warnings went completely ignored... but someone else outside the bus was screaming a warning of her own. There was Naomi, running as always, chasing after the bus shouting at the top of her lungs with tears streaming down her cheeks. Anna turned her head at the sound of her voice and smiled. She opened her mouth to say something, but the first hint of a word left her lips at the same instant the fuse hit the trigger...

The alarms were screaming throughout the ship and Gwen snapped awake in her bed to the sound of the Captain on the P.A., "General Quarters, General Quarters. Lieutenant Larson report to the bridge immediately." She tossed off the covers and slipped into her boots, heading out of her quarters and down the hall in sweatpants and a tank-top. _Now what? These little fire drills are getting tiresome._

At long last the rear hatch to the bridge opened and Lieutenant Larson made her presence known to the crew with a very loud and obnoxious belch. This time no one in the room even turned to look at her as she entered, eyes still glazed over from interrupted sleep. She planted her feet on the deck next to the forward viewport and looked out at the sight that had the attention of everyone else on the bridge: two Salamis class cruisers were approaching off in the distance, their guns aimed directly at their hull and mobile suits circling around them like mechanized vultures.

Lieutenant Larson regarded them for a few moments until one of the GMs moved up alongside the ship, set its hand on the side of the bridge and opened communications through the skin, "Do you read me? This is Lieutenant Aiello of the Titans Border Patrol. You're ordered to surrender immediately and prepare to be boarded. If you fail to comply, you will be fired upon."

Larson spun around and faced Captain Montgomery with a look of confusion. "Captain, can they just do that? I thought they needed a search warrant?"

"I thought so too..." Captain Montgomery opened a channel and answered calmly, "Titans pilot, we will comply IF we understand your justification—"

The GM pilot cut him off mid sentence, "I repeat: prepare to be boarded or you will be fired upon." 

The mobile suit broke contact at that point, leaving Captain Montgomery and most of the bridge crew shaking their heads in wonder. Lieutenant Larson started for the hatch again, slightly annoyed with the situation. "I'll have your mobile suits ready to launch sir..."

"Hold on a minute Gwen..." The Captain stopped for just a few minutes to think, then slowly reached over to his consol and opened a laser channel to one of the cruisers, "This is the Alexi Leonov to Titans vessels: we're standing down. You have clearance to come aboard."

It was all Gwen could do to keep from leaping across the bridge and slapping the old man silly, "Captain! What the hell is...?!"

"With Green Noa under suspicion, we can't afford to be uncooperative. We don't a repeat of Side 6, after all."

Gwen was silent for a few moments, then turned slowly and looked back out at the two cruisers approaching in the distance, "That's assuming the Titans will leave us alone if we cooperate with them."

"It may be assuming too much, but we have nothing to hide, so the Titans will find nothing to complain about. Where is your faith Gwen?"

Gwen shook her head and moved back towards the hatch. "The only faith I have is in my mobile suit."

"Where are you going?"

"To greet our guests." She said, closing the hatch behind her.

*****

The two shuttles from the Titans landed with a thud in the main launch bay as Gwen and four others in pilot suits entered to greet them, all totally unarmed except for discontent frowns and nervous gestures. The hatch to the shuttles opened even before both of them were landed and more than a dozen men with rifles emerged from each, spreading out across the shuttle bay and heading immediately for the airlock hatches without so much as a greeting. After a moment, a pair of black GMs entered and landed behind the shuttles, and the two pilots emerged from the cockpits and descended to the deck to join he four bewildered Zeon officers, "Which one of you is the commanding officer?"

Gwen stepped forward and met Lieutenant Aiello as he landed, "Lieutenant Commander Gwen Larson, Marquis Fleet. As you are no doubt away, I've just come from the cruiser Agamemnon as liaison to the Ti..."

"I'm in no mood, Larson. Take me to the bridge."

Gwen raised a brow at the young officer's impatience, but out of respect for the Captain's wishes she complied with him. "Of course. You know we have nothing to hide." She turned and started leading the man into the airlock and down the corridor to the nearest lift. "We're merely passing through here on the way to our home port and have no intention..."

"I have asked you no questions, Larson. Now be quiet."

Gwen grit her teeth as the five of them stepped into the lift, and grit them even harder to arrive in the bridge and find three armed marines already standing alongside Captain Montgomery's chair. It didn't take her long to realize these men had entered through one of the gangway hatches while Aiello's party was still landing. "Who's in command here?" Aiello said coarsely.

Montgomery turned around slowly and nodded. "Captain at your service, Lieutenant."

Aiello reached into his pocket and pulled out two sheets of paper, both signed with the unreadable scrawl of a Federation Admiral. "By order of the Earth Federal Forces and the Titans Elite Forces, this ship and its crew are in violation of the terms of the Granada Armistice. This ship is to be impounded and crew detained for questioning. Failure to comply will be considered an act of war by the Marquis Fleet."

Captain Montgomery immediately picked up on the fuzzy logic of the complaint, and slowly stood up to address it. "Admiral Marquis never signed that Armistice. We're not part of the Duchy of Zeon..."

Aiello's response was as swift as it was unexpected; he quickly drew his sidearm and shot the Captain in the shoulder. No one else moved, the rifles from the three marines pinning down the rest of the officers in the room. "Any further complaints?" Aiello said slowly. No one answered him, and with a satisfied grin he stepped up, shoved the wounded Captain aside to be tended by the two nearest crewmen and placed himself in his chair. Already, Gwen could see two additional shuttles moving alongside the ship to offload yet another contingent of soldiers with rifles to further passify the Leonov's crew. "Now then," Aiello began, "As of this moment all Zeon personnel are confined to quarters. Senior officers will report to the bridge immediately. This ship will follow the New Zealand and the Tanzania to Konpei Island for further inspection. Does anyone here not understand this situation?"

In truth no one did, but with the .45 in his hand and the three men with assult rifles flanking the Captain's chair, no one dared offer another word of complaint. Gwen could only grit her teeth at the circumstances and swallow the burning rage at what was happening on her very own ship, _And now I wonder if Duncan and Vanessa had the right idea after all..._

  
_ - April 5, UC 0084 –  
- 1055 hours (CST) -  
_ In whispers and random inclinations in a dozen languages, a restless spirit had found its way to the homeless shelter and soup kitchen adjacent to St. Paul Lutheran Church. In a room the size of a high school classroom holding forty men, the silence in the air played on the nerves of even the nuns behind the counters and rattled the ladells in their hands. The whispers were all of the same subject, what all of them knew was coming soon but didn't know when or where. Everyone knew it, but everyone was afraid to say it out loud—the rumors of a new union that had snowballed since the Titans' sacking of Riah.

Forty men, face down in Styrofoam bowls of soup, even those who would normally shoot their mouths off for hours were as somber as a infantry men in a foxhole. For most of them it was a familiar feeling, too familiar for some... but when the double doors to the soup kitchen finally swung open, all heads turned and all jaws dropped. A Tall man in a Federation uniform now filled the doorway, ramrod straight with the commanding presence of a five-star general. But even the nuns could see this man was no ordinary Feddy; his face masked in a pair of enormous sunglasses framing a jagged scar in the middle of his forehead, light blonde hair, the lean build of fighter jock or a mobile suit pilot. But most striking about him was the uniform itself. It was standard Federation issue with a Lieutenant's insignia... but the uniform was colored crimson red.

The stranger stood firmly in the doorway, looked around the room, meeting the weary stares of these tried and hopeless men huddled here for a Church's mercy. He took off his sunglasses, tucked them into his pocket, and boldly looked each and every one of them in the eye, staring into each of their souls. When he had their attention, he stood up just a little straighter and declared to the room, "If there are soldiers among you, stand up now!"

All but ten of them stood, faced him with trembling hearts and stood at attention as best they could remember how. Immediately, all of them were surprised at themselves, and at the power of authority of the stranger. He stood there for a few minutes and met each of their eyes, then declared smoothly with a commanding tongue, "Any man who wishes to remain here in the basement, sit down now. The rest of you, follow me."

With those simple words, the stranger turned and left the room. All thirty men standing there immediately abandoned their soup bowls and followed him into the street, and after a matter of moments the ten still seated followed suit and joined the veterans. In half a minute the soup kitchen was vacant, and in another half a minute so were the streets. Six covered trucks, all military issue, loaded the men into the back to join the ones assembled from elsewhere. Men and women of all ages, with tired faces and weary eyes... the lost children of Lower Grenada were gathered here at last.

Lieutenant Quattro climbed into the cab of the first truck and nodded at his driver. The truck shifted into gear and started moving again, the other five trucks following shortly after it on the way to their final stop at Grenada's space port. They turned the corner and headed for the giant elevator platforms that would lift them to the upper levels of the city, and just short of them Quattro's radio crackled with the voice of authority, "Mr. Quattro, you were supposed to report in after your last two stops."

"We're on our way now, Mr. Brex. Sorry for the rather long wait but we've had an unexpectedly high turn out this morning."

Commodore Brex chuckled on the other end. "Seems you were right after all. This will teach me to underestimate the power of human discontent."

"Hardly, Commodore. These men were soldiers during wartime. Every soldier knows that tomorrow may not be peaceful."

"Hence your joining the AEUG, Mr. Quattro?"

The lieutenant grinned at the remark. That could be said to be one of his reasons... if one were to overlook the circumstances of his short-lived (and non-existent) career in the Federal Forces. "I don't know any other way to make a living, Commodore. At least... I'm better at training pilots than I am at civilian occupations."

Brex chuckled again. "I see your point... I couldn't really picture you as a basket weaver... anyhow, we're waiting for the new recruits over on South Block. The Titans ships have already left port and the Feddies will be leaving within the hour so don't worry about the time frame."

"Understood, Commodore Brex."

  
_ - April 6, UC 0084 –  
- 1802 hours (CST) -_  
Four days from now, the battleship Dogos Gaia and its 12 mobile suits would arrive at Green Noa-II, meeting an otherwise complacent and now utterly useless Admiral Marquise to forcibly remove him from his colony. Admiral Carter was saddened by this turn of events, mainly at having wasted so much time working side-by-side with the Zeon dissidents only to have to ultimately dispose of them when the time came. But it was necessary all the same; the Titans needed their own dedicated construction facility and space borne center of operations for what was soon to come.

The ship was just passing through the asteroid clutter of Side 4, on its way to a polar orbit of the Earth that would take them straight to the Titans rally point at Luna-II. Even with his disappointment, the operation was sure to prove exciting for the type of action he would be able to see this time... and of course, there was always Lieutenant Cunningham... "You look good in a Titans uniform, Dieter."

"Thank you sir." Deiter said mechanically.

"Doesn't seem unusual to you? Turning on your former superiors in such a way?"

Dieter shrugged at the question, apparently not having given it that much thought before now. "To be honest, Admiral, I found your reasoning very convincing. The Republic of Zeon and the Titans SHOULD work together. Admiral Marquise stands in the way of this unity, just like you said."

_Heh... I bet this one still believes in the Tooth Fairy too._ Carter almost laughed, "What exactly do you value if not loyalty, Dieter?"

"Why, the progress of mankind, of course. If the Titans can keep order in the colonies, then the newtypes will be able to progress without interruption. In fact, if Project N is successful we might even accelerate the process."

Carter chuckled out loud this time. _Poor little man. He's even easier to control than the Components..._ Dr. Adams arrived on the bridge at that moment with a stack of papers in his hands and a massive grin across his lips. _Speak of the devil,_ "How's our new lab rat adjusting to the program?"

Adams seemed beside himself with joy. "In all my years I have never encountered a newtype with such amazing abilities. Number Nine interfaced with the system perfectly within an hour of adjustment, and she's already synchronized with the resonators."

Carter joined the Doctor in his frozen gleeful smile. "That is excellent news, Dr. Adams, but of course it means nothing if..."

"I'm WAY ahead of you, Admiral. Nine's conditioning is progressing slowly, but we can count on her obedience in the future. I'd still like to do more work with her to make sure her mind is properly aligned, and of course there's the issue of her mobile suit."

Carter's smile faded. "What mobile suit? You don't mean...?"

"I think we've finally found one that can operate the network effectively. If that is the case, we'll be able to use all four of them and synchronize them through Number Nine in combat. No more deploying them one at a time."

Carter turned slowly and looked through the veiwport at the stars. "It's ironic in a way... the answer to our problems was right under our nose all this time..." His mind wandered for the longest time, back to the old days of the project, before the Titans took over development and stepped up his funding. He had searched long and hard to find someone to replace Naomi as the tactical fulcrum of the trio but so far found no one who could measure up... until now. "I'm guessing the Marquis fleet will likely scatter when they see us coming, so I don't expect much resistance when we arrive... nothing either Six or Eight couldn't handle on their own."

Dieter cleared his throat loudly, but Carter dismissed him offhand. "I don't care for your complaints, Dieter. You'll support the Flash Gundams from the rear line just like everyone else. Understand?"

Dieter groaned slightly but straightened up and saluted. "Yes, Admiral. I'll follow your orders."

It was all Carter could do to keep from rolling his eyes at the man. "Run along now, Dieter. Your presence is no longer required."

"Sir," Dieter saluted again and marched off the bridge in step, at once leaving Adams and Carter shaking their heads in wonder.

"You sure HE'S not part of the program?" Carter said half-joking.

Dr. Adams shook his head. "It would be perfect if he was. The Components follow orders because they don't have a choice... Dieter does it because he LIKES to."

"That's very unusual for spacenoids," Carter's brain suddenly made a connection, "In fact the exact opposite. If people like Dieter weren't such a minority among the people living out here, the Titans wouldn't even need to exist." 


	16. Chapter 15: Drone

"What is this human obsession, the bravado of man that wishes to slay a dragon to prove his manhood to the maiden of the tower? In your mind you are a hero, in your ego you're a valiant warrior—but to the dragon you are crunchy, and taste good with ketchup."   
- Kai Shiden 

* * *

**Chapter 15: Drone  
**   
_- April 9, UC 0084 -   
- 1340 hours (CST) - _   
Captain Barnabus and his fleet—if you could call it a fleet—of three Musais and twenty four mobile suits was right where it needed to be, well ahead of Green Noa-II and the rapidly scattering Marquis fleet as they struggled to evacuate the last of their forces from the colony. The words of his two eldest children had not fallen on deaf ears after all, and in the end Admiral Marquis had decided not to trust his Titan counterparts after all, a decision he now knew he would not soon regret. 

From the combat control center on the battleship Ganges, flanked by small cruiser squadron as they pulled out of the space dock, the hulking frame of the Admiral watched the tactical display as Captain Barnabus' delaying tactic came to pass, just now entering firing range of the Titans squadron, five ships in all, the largest of them hanging back to the rear even as its mobile suits moved to the far front of the Titans attack formation. Marquis counted off the Titans mobile suits and frowned. "Barnabus is outnumbered two to one." He muttered to himself. "That battleship must be the size of a Doros or close to it... she's already launched a dozen units..." 

A flash on his radar screen and a reverberation from one of the tactical officers on the other side of the room spoke the same message, "The Ursula's opened fire." 

"Barnabus is concentrating his gunnery on the heavy cruiser... smart man. The Alexandria class will be the biggest naval threat..." The first wave of mobile suits from the three Zeon ships, all units borrowed from the Colony defense squadrons, pushed off from their ad-hock storage positions standing on the engine pods of the Musais, launching forward to intercept the Titans mobile suits as they came into range. As the Ganges and the last of the Zeons left the colony, Marquis found himself watching on a tactical display what amounted to be the last time they ever faced the Titans in a stand-up fight... and yet, already, something was wrong. "Why aren't the Titans mobile suits advancing?" 

His chief tactical officer looked at the data in utter puzzlement. "They uh... it looks like they're advancing in a wall formation..." 

"Yes, I can see that. If they're using that formation, where's the spearhead? They'd only line up like that if there was something leading the formation." 

Both of them men, as well as everyone else in the sound of his voice looked at the tactical plot in mild confusion, wracking their own brains for the answer. Mere moments later, the answer was given to them freely. "Picking up another mobile su... no, it's too big. Looks like a mobile armor. It just launched from that battlewagon in the rear of the fleet." 

Deep down inside, Marquis' excitement level elevated and his heart beat a little faster. Somehow he knew that what he was about to see was something few others had seen before, and somehow he knew that if he didn't watch very carefully he would eventually regret it. "Tell Barnabus to keep his sensors trained on it and transmit as much data as he can for as long as he can. If that is a new Titans weapon..." Another energy spike in the tactical plot, and suddenly the Titans weapon finished his thought for him; three Gelgoogs immediately disappeared from his display, and moments later three more disappeared one after another. Marquis' excitement turned into a kind of sad despair. "...assuming that data ever gets put into use by someone." 

Barnabus watched the new machine raging toward them with the confidence of fifty mobile suits, the fire of hell blazing in its eyes and its verniers leaving a streak of vapor behind it in a strange plasma effect. He could tell nothing about this thing was normal, even as a section of its chest began to sparkle from its own light. "Forward guns, break off from that Alexandria for 30 seconds and concentrate fire on that big mobile suit." 

"Roger, bridge," Came the response, and a moment later all three of the mega particle cannons fired a simultaneous barrage, joined by the guns of the other three ships. The six remaining Gelgoog suits trying in vain to attack it broke off for a moment to clear the line of fire just as a massive barrage of energy beams struck down on the mobile suit; with movements too quick for a human eye to follow, the mobile suit dodged between most of the beams from the battleship guns, catching any it couldn't avoid with a small I-field covering most of its torso. 

As soon as the glare from the beam cannons subsided, the bulky Titans mobile suit charged forward again. Two Gelgoogs moved in its path and fired off a token salute from their beam rifles just before a salvo from the Flash Gundam's forearm beam cannons struck them down. It charged through the wreckage of the Zeon suits towards the three Musai, just now launching their second wave of mobile suits to attack them and preparing a missile salvo to compliment the beam cannon attack. 

In a dark and near-silent cockpit, her face masked by the cumbersome mechanism of the psychommu's brain-machine interface, the ninth child of the Murasame laboratory tracked every target in the sky around her and grit her teeth in a genocidal rage. A flip of the switch and a pair of armored covers popped open on her shoulders, another switch and a dozen tiny pods released from their hard points and maneuvered under their own verniers. And but a mere thought, full of burning hatred and rage, all twelve bits swarmed among the formation of Zeon mobile suits and attacked at once, joining both of her forearm cannons, head cannon, and the larger beam cannon in the center of the torso, scattering its rays to four different targets at once. 

Every shot found its mark. The stars disappeared behind a curtain of flame, twisted metal splattered against her armor, and in her heart she could sense death all around her; it only fuelled her rage. The only sound she could hear was the sound of her heart pounding in her chest... and beyond it, almost in the background, the sound of her own maniacal laughter...  
  
  
_- April 26, UC 0084 -   
- 1730 hours (CST) - _   
Ryo paused for a moment over a section of the far bulkhead just behind a large crate of what was labeled as Processed Cheese, stepped forward a bit more and scrutinized the bulkhead with his flashlight. "Where'd you say you were coming from? 30 Bunch?" 

The freighter captain nodded. "Like I said, we run distribution routes. 30 Bunch is the second most productive colony in the sector." 

Ryo ran his fingers along the bulkhead, noticing things he knew he should not have on a ship of this type. It was something Lucy had observed even from outside of the bulk freighter, and something even easier to observe from inside. "I hear that's a nice colony. Wide open spaces..." 

"Yeah, there's mostly farms and cattle pastures, but the town there is pretty nice. Lotsa hotels, some nightclubs, a casino... ya know, entertainment for us freight-hermits between runs." 

Ryo put his ear up to the bulkhead and tapped the metal, listened for a hollow sound, then frowned and stepped away to face the captain again. "Alright Captain, everything here seems pretty normal. I won't be holding you guys up anymore than I need to." 

The freighter Captain took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his face, an action whose relevance was not lost on Ryo. "Of course we have nothing to hide, Lieutenant Izumi, though I do feel I should point out that under the Constitution, this would be defined as illegal search and caesurae." 

Ryo shrugged. "This is international space. The constitution isn't extended outside the Federation." 

The Captain nodded, then added, "That being the case, how can you legally search someone else's property? Isn't that..." 

"Oh, it's easy Captain." Ryo took his pilot-suit gloves out of his pocket and began fastening the seals to the sleeves. "I just pretend not to notice the crappy weld job on that smuggling compartment over there." 

The freighter Captain shot a look at the bulkhead, then sighed and stared at his feet. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice." 

"A nine year old would notice it. You really should get that fixed." 

"Thanks for the tip," 

Ryo pulled his helmet back down over his head and opened the vernier pack on the back of his suit, "That compartment looks big enough for a mobile suit. You guys aren't out to start some trouble are you?" 

The freighter captain sighed again. "Just a humble merchant, Lieutenant. Nothing more." 

"Good man." Ryo pushed off the deck to the airlock hatch at the other end of the cargo compartment, closed the inner hatch and slipped out again into the vacuum of space, finding Lucy and Eric's mobile suits still planted on the upper deck of the ship. He maneuvered up to the hatch of his own mobile suit, taking just a moment to admire the sleek frame of his repainted Galbaldy Beta in the light gray and midnight blue of the Tarawa's mobile suit squadron. Thing looks like a Gundam's groupie, he mused with a grin, slipping into the cockpit an starting up the system again. "This is 804, completed the search." 

Lucy looked back at the freighter and frowned, "Copy 804. Fall back into formation and return to the ship." She pushed off from the top of the ship, gave herself some distance before firing her verniers again on the flight towards the Tarawa. Once they were clear, Ryo and Eric both placed their hands on her shoulders for direct-line communications: "I took a sonar reading from that smuggling compartment. Have a look." 

Ryo's computer put the data on screen and displayed a rough density map in the screen in front of him. At first he thought the image might have been distorted somehow, but after a few moments he closed the window and sighed. "Your tracking's all screwed up. Thing looks like a damn skeleton." 

Lucy switched over to her recorder and isolated two sound tracks, "I don't think so. The external density is too high, kinda sounds like armor." 

"Well you're the expert... you never know, right?" 

"Right." 

Eric's stomach fluttered at the image... for something about it made him extremely uncomfortable. "You manage plant the tracker Izumi?" 

"Stuck it in the cable trunking in the airlock on the way in..." He paused a moment, checked the transponder for a signal, "And I've got a reading on it too. We should be able to track it from 20,000 klicks." 

"Good work, Izumi... workin on that promotion huh?" 

Ryo grinned. "To be honest, Lieutenant, I'm kinda bucking for squad leader." 

"Hah! Over my dead body...!" Lucy was about to accelerate back towards the Tarawa to report in, but at that moment her sensors registered something massive in infra red drifting towards them in the far distance. There was little movement, and the Minovsky density was low enough that she didn't feel a need to be concerned... still, anything so massive floating around in open space, so far from any charted debris field was at the very least a curiosity. "Ryo, check your thermal scans at 5 o'clock high, Earthward." 

Ryo scanned in that direction and picked it up almost immediately. "I see it. Can't identify the silloute... whatever it is, it's huge." 

Lucy scanned frequencies for transmissions, then sent a general IFF signal and waited. The object offered no reply. "Not answering hails..." 

Eric zoomed in his optics as far as they would go, but whatever it was it had its back to the sun and he couldn't make it out just from its outline. "We've got plenty of fuel. Wanna have a look?" 

"Defiantly. Ryo, Eric, take up a flanking position behind me." Before even waiting she changed direction and rocketed towards the strange object, letting her two wingmen fall into formation behind her, just far enough behind not to be caught in any kind of trap that might be waiting for them. As they got closer the data from the sensors became more detailed, but they were still no closer to figuring out what it was. "I can't tell anything from this angle... I'm gonna come in on a tangent. You two keep on that path." 

"We won't be able to cover you, Lucy..." 

"If there's anything dangerous we'll have plenty of time to pull out." Lucy banked off to one side on her approach, arcing far off to the side to circle in on the object, hopefully to approach from a perpendicular angle as Ryo and Eric. As the range slowly ticked off, she decided now would be a good time to report in, "802 calling Tarawa, reporting in." 

Ensign Holland answered immediately, "Standing by, Lucy. What's your situation?" 

"We've picked up and unidentified object close to our patrol zone. We're moving to check it out right now." 

There was a pause for a moment as Holland relayed the information to Captain Shiden, then, relaying a question from the captain, the Ensign added, "We have your position on radar, but the object doesn't register at this range. Any idea of identity?" 

"Nothing yet, but we'll keep you inf..." At the very moment she came to a point far enough to a side where she could see it clearly without the glare of the sun, all the warmth from her blood was gone from her body. It was not merely one object but several large ones and dozens of smaller ones, floating amongst a cloud of scrap metal and random debris... even as she closed in her mobile suit passed a small galaxy of mangled corpses spinning slowly in space. She caught her breath after a long moment and reported back, "Zeon ships." 

Holland even sounded surprised over the radio. "Enemies?! You require assistance?" 

By this time, Ryo and Eric were close enough to see what she was seeing, and both of their responses were roughly the same. "Negative, Tarawa. Whatever happened here, I think we missed it."  


_- 1803 hours (CST) - _   
Lieutenant Larson heard the rough clank of a metallic hatch opening and closing, then the sound of footsteps down the hall as a pair of Federation officers strode towards her cell. Normally she would have stood up and poised herself next to the door ready to pounce on one of her visitors, but today she was in no mood, and kept her place sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. Reflexively, her fingers brushed the injured ribs on her left side and the array of cigarette burns on her right from the last three "interviews" with Titans intelligence. In her previous encounter with the burly Intel man yesterday she had just managed enough of a fight to draw blood from his nose, a victory won at the cost of yet another fractured rib, but well worth it all the same. As the footsteps drew closer, she found herself itching for a chance to do it again. 

The footsteps came to a stop right in front of her cell door, paused for a moment, then came a loud metallic clank as someone cycled off the locks and slid the door open to reveal a pair of entirely unfamiliar faces. "Top of the morning, Ms. Larson," said the first one, an older man with a sharp nose and tidy, silver hair, "I hope my dark-suited comrades haven't made you too uncomfortable." 

Larson stared at them blankly, then raised her left hand and displayed the appropriate finger. 

The older man smiled and stepped into the cell, followed by a much younger officer with a wild look about him. "Still in a bad mood? Well I can't say that I blame you after what I imagine the Titans have put you through." 

Larson's eyes burned at him with contempt, the dropped again and settled on the floor. She almost wished the burly intel man had visited her this morning, an object to vent her frustrations at least. 

"I don't suppose you told them anything?" The older man asked innocently. 

Larson raised a brow. "Why are you asking me? Should be in the daily report." 

"Intelligence reports aren't circulated among the regular staff anymore. Aside from us, nobody else outside the Titans even knows you're here." 

Something in his voice betrayed a slightly different meaning of the word "us" than her mind was inclined to expect. "So what do you want? A medal?" 

The older man stepped fully into the room and sat down on Larson's disused mattress in the opposite corner. "Have they charged you with anything?" 

Gwen let her shoulders sag just a little, "Piracy, smuggling, Espionage, terrorism, industrial sabotage, kidnapping, jaywalking... any bullshit charge they could come up with..." 

"I mean something specific." The man leaned forward slightly with greater emphasis, "To your knowledge, are you being held in connection with any particular incident or grievance involving the Federation?" 

Larson shrugged. "I have no idea. If we have, they haven't asked me about it." 

This seemed to satisfy him, and he leaned back a bit and folded his arms. "Seems to me they've been asking you quite a few questions lately." 

Larson looked at the cigarette burns on her arms, but also realizing that from the pain in her cheek her face was probably still flush with bruises. "You could say that." 

"What HAVE they been asking you about?" 

"They seem interested in knowing where the Marquis fleet might have gone to. Good old military intelligence." 

"And damn illegal to boot." 

"They've been interrogating me day and night for two weeks now, but yesterday they just called it quits..." She chuckled slightly, "Somebody must have told them it's my birthday." 

"Speaking of which, I just happen to have a present for you." The older man stood up slowly and walked back to the doorway. His younger companion stepped into the room with a knapsack slung over his shoulder and dropped it on the deck next to Lieutenant Larson's feet. "It so happens, your detention here coincides with a rather transitional period in my career. I'd be most obliged if you would assist me in a possible business venture." 

Gwen tiredly pulled open the bag and tugged at its contents, seeing but not understanding for the longest time the significance of it. "What kind of business?" 

"Time for that later. Just put it on." Gwen did as she was told, surprised to find that this officer had apparently taken the time to get her exact measurements from the Leonov's computer before the Titans demolished it for scrap metal. She dressed herself quickly, not even noting the two sets of eyes on her, at least until she was fully dressed and looking at herself in surprise. The older man seemed likewise impressed, telltale by the curious grin on his face, "You look quite nice in a Federation uniform." 

Gwen looked herself over again and sighed. "I hate admit it, but..." 

Both men stepped out of the open doorway and gestured for her to follow them. She did somewhat timidly, and the younger man handed her a pistol. "This way, Lieutenant. We have a few things to discuss." 

Gwen tucked the pistol into the back of her trousers and grinned. "That goes without saying. By the way, sir, I didn't catch your name," She said turning to the older man. 

He paused to open the security door to the prison block and stepped aside in a gentlemanly gesture and allowed her to go through first. "Captain Nigel Synapse," He said warmly, "And this is Captain Mallory." He said as the younger man passed through the hatchway behind her. 

"I don't suppose you'll get around to telling me what you want with me?" 

Captain Synapse grinned. "I'm certain I'll get around to it." 

"When?" 

"Patience, Lieutenant. All will be explained eventually."  
  
  


_- 1842 hours (CST) - _   
Brian floated calmly up to the top of the lift in front of Naomi's cockpit, hoping merely to poke his head inside to see if he might find her, again, in the seclusion of her cockpit with either a bottle of wine or a pair of enormous headphones... instead he arrived to find the cockpit hatch locked shut and a rather stiff-backed Lieutenant Dyson standing guard just in front of it. "Rico, is Commander Wilson in there?" 

Rico seemed to be standing at attention, side arm in his belt, staring straight ahead as if he were still on duty. "Sir, she asked not to be disturbed sir." 

Brian raised a brow. "How long as she been in there?" 

"Almost an hour, sir." Brian stepped forward and reached for the door release, but Rico grabbed his hand, "She asked not to be disturbed, sir. She ummm... she was very specific." 

"Uh huh..." Brian stepped back a bit and thought for a moment, "Any time something's bothering her she always locks herself in her mobile suit. Have you ever wondered about that?" 

Kelly looked up from where he had been working on one of the exhaust ports only a few meters above their heads, "She's been that way since I've been here, Brian. But lately she's been getting into something of a routine." 

"Routine?" 

"She comes in here five times a day, doesn't eat anything till right after the night shift starts, and doesn't talk to anyone except mechanics anymore." 

Brian grinned, suddenly realizing that Kelly was leading him somewhere. "Sounds familiar doesn't it?" 

Kelly grinned. "Yuri used to do that... where was he going off to?" 

Brian chuckled, suddenly remembering the entire experience. "He went out in a space suit on top of the starboard main gun." 

"Yeah, that's right. You remember, Rico?" 

Rico nodded stiffly, the memory apparently only too fresh in his mind. "Yes sir, I do. That's why Commander Wilson asked me to make sure no one entered until she gave permission. She uh... she figured I would understand." 

"Stand aside, Lieutenant." Brian said, his voice shifting to one of authority. Rico didn't move at first, and Brian repeated more loudly, "Stand aside." This time the Lieutenant obliged him—mainly submitting to his superior rank—and Brian keyed the lock on the hatch, opened it, and quietly slipped inside. 

He found Commander Wilson sitting with eyes closed and arms folded in total darkness in her cockpit except for a soft orange light along the bottom of the panoramic monitor, apparently intended to provide the illusion of sunset from all directions. Her head was framed by a pair of gigantic earphones, and sitting there in the linear seat she seemed perfectly content and at peace as she was... until the very moment he closed the hatch behind him and she opened her eyes slowly at feeling the door close again. She stared at Brian for just a few moments, then took the headphones off and hung them weightless in the air next to her. "Evening, Brian." 

"And here I thought you weren't religious..." 

"I'm not." She said dryly.

"Then what's all this?"

Naomi looked around slowly, apparently noting all of the subtle hints that might have led him any particular conclusion on how she had spent the last hour and a half. "A habit. Anyway, what's up?" 

Brian took a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. "The new pilots finally arrived from Earth." 

"Am I gonna like this?" 

"Nope." 

Naomi unfolded the report and read it over quickly, then frowned at the information. "Typical... not a single one of them has any combat experience. Good thing they're only taking core fighters or else..." She looked up and noticed a strange expression on Brian's face, something like childish amusement at the holographic scenery around them. "Something wrong, Lieutenant?" 

"Isn't that some Sufi tradition? Meditating at until the full moon passes overhead?" 

Naomi grinned. "I'm impressed, Lieutenant." 

"I'm a Contolist, Ma'am. Daikun was openly an admirer of the Muslim Mystics, especially the modern schools." Brian chuckled lightly, held her headphones up to the side of his head and listened for a moment, hearing what sounded like a Billie Holliday song but with a much younger woman singing it, "Interesting 'habit' you've got here. They say the Sufis include martial arts disciplines in their training now." 

"Ryu Khadun started that about sixty years ago. It's already mainstream in the colonies, but you'll never see that on Earth." Naomi rubbed her fingers through her hair, then sighed and switched the monitor back to external cameras. "In Lower Granada, I used break into people's houses and stealing food from their kitchens just to survive. When I was ten, I started breaking into that Sufi Mosque over on 15th street..." 

Brian grinned. "One of the students catch you, huh?" 

She nodded with a smile, remembering the pain more than anything, "That's how I met Samir. He was two years older than me. I guess it was love at first fight." 

His grin became a curious frown. "You fought him? I would have run my ass off at that point." 

"Samir was never very big or muscular. He didn't look so tough... I would have beaten him too if I wasn't so hungry." 

Brian didn't need to be told the rest of the story, "So as punishment for stealing from them, you had to become a student... a chance you jumped at since it meant free food and possibly shelter." 

Naomi nodded again, this time staring off into the distance lost in memory, "The others wanted to give me to the police, but Master Fuchida agreed to help me as long as I agreed to stay there and endure the training." 

"How does someone grow up in the company of mystics end up becoming an atheist?" 

Naomi stared at her feet. "I never said I was an atheist." 

"Heh... dying words of a Contolist." He said with a grin leaning back against the side of the cockpit monitor. "Every religious or spiritual pool has a dedicated combative tradition. The Shaolin temple, the knights of Europe, the Samurai, Neo-Sufis..." 

"In truth their intent was to teach their students how and when to fight, and more importantly when NOT to fight. Violence is always the last resort." 

Brian chuckled at this as well. "And what's YOUR excuse? You have a temper like a rodeo bull." 

"I'm not what you would call a stable person, Brian. Besides, us newtypes are well documented for being... emotional." Naomi leaned forward in her seat and let herself drift to the side of the monitor next to Brian, "That's ironic in a way. Everyone wants to try to use newtypes for combat purposes, but have you thought of what would happen if newtypes banded together against everyone else? How the world would react to it?" 

Brian nodded slowly. "Daikun mentioned something about that in his book. He pointed out that at some point in our emergence we would be drawn to one another, separate ourselves from oldtypes and so forth. You know, that reminds me of something Alice told..." 

At the mention of her name, Brian's heart skipped a beat and his blood turned a few degrees colder. Naomi felt the sudden change in him as if she were sharing his body, and noted the look of overwhelming sadness in his eyes. Without thinking she reached out to him and hugged him gently. Brian melted into her arms and sighed, "Dammit all..." 

The mood turned from friendly to a palpable sorrow. Naomi could swear that the air around them was getting thicker by the moment. "I'm sorry Brian," She felt his hands trembling through her uniform, and heard his breathing start to grow shallow... but more than anything was a strange sensation that made her feel like the two of them were both moving somewhere... "I know how it feels to loose some..." 

"Bullshit!" He shoved her back against the monitor, waving his arms in a sudden burst of energy, "How can you understand?! How can you know?!" 

"Brian..." 

"...Having someone you love ripped away from you... do you have any idea what that's like?! She was all I had in the world and they took her away from me!" 

"Brian..." 

"You talk a fine game but in the end, that's all you are! You think you can talk my sister back to me?! Bullsh...!" 

This time she raised her hand above her head and slapped him powerfully across the face. 

His immediate reaction was a stunned pause, as if her hand had struck the reset button on his brain. After a few moments his mind came back into focus; he blinked a few times and then tried to stand at attention. "Sorry, Commander." 

"Sorry my ass! I can't have one of my pilots reduced to hysterics like a simpering schoolboy! Stop feeling sorry for yourself and carry out your duty!" A small parade of varying moods flashed across his face. Sensing his confusion, Naomi added more gently, "I cared about her too, Brian, she was... look, I need you to keep it together for now, okay? We'll get the bastards who took her away from us and then..." 

"...Naomi," He stopped her with a word, but it was something deeper in his voice that caught her attention and stopped her in the middle of her sentence. She found herself at a loss for words, hovering in silence next to the cockpit hatch in front of her linear seat, still holding Brian by the shoulders as if ready to slam him against the wall. And yet, for some reason, she felt herself moving closer to him moment by moment... "I've never had a family, Naomi." He said at last. "All I ever had was Alice. And when I lost Alice I..." 

"I understand, Brian, really. I've been through this myself and I know what you must be going through. But you just have to remember you're not alone here. Your comrades, your shipmates... we're all family here. Most of us don't even have a place to go back to." 

"But I..." 

On some unknown impulse, Naomi smiled at him, leaned forward gently and kissed him on the cheek. The action surprised him, but only a little, and when she finally stepped back and looked up in her eyes the air around them was completely still. 

"I don't want to be alone." He said, almost in a whisper. 

Naomi moved forward slowly, falling into his arms ever so gently until the two of them fell softly against the side of the monitor in a surprisingly relaxed embrace. "Neither do I..." Time marched on slowly, both of them limp in each other's arms, staring at each other in the briefest yet eternal moment of weakness. The space of a few seconds seemed like hours to her before Naomi's defenses came up again and she slipped away from him, reached down and tapped the keypad, opening the hatch to her Gundam. "We'll... we'll talk more later." She said, leaving her words to hang in the air just for him to hold on to. 

Before Brian could say anything else, she slipped gracefully out of the cockpit and floated out into the hangar intending to make a beeline to the officer's quarters until a general announcement came over the P.A. "Zeon wreckage to port! Mechanic staff, standby for recovery operations!" 

This caught everyone's attention, pilots and mechanics alike, as well as all off-duty personnel anywhere on the ship, all of which flocked to the nearest view port on the ship's port side. 

Naomi, Rico and Brian all arrived at the bridge at the same time, and all looked out of the window on the port side at a truly awesome sight. It took them a few moments for their eyes to sift through the chaotic scattering of wreckage; three Musai class cruisers and a Tivvay class heavy cruiser their hulls chopped to pieces and spinning in space like mangled corpses, stripped almost to the skeletons. It looked as if they'd each been chewed up and spat back out again by a giant, a trait that seemed to carry over to the broken mobile suits floating in small clusters around them. Most spectacular—and most horrific—was the largest of the wrecks: a giant misshapen mass of red and scorched black, slowly spinning about itself in every which way, the wrecks of a dozen Gelgoogs and Rickdoms dismembered and floating nearby. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Brian watched as Ryo's Galbaldy moved through the debris field and approached the ship, gently touching down in the mobile suit hangar while Lucy and Eric continued to sift through the debris for anything that might be salvageable. "My God..." He said, his voice surrendering to the devastation before him, "An entire Zeon battlegroup..." 

Captain Shiden managed to keep the shock of it all out of his eyes, but a hint of it still registered in his voice, "You can tell from the patterns they were still in battle formation when they were attacked. Whatever happened must have been very sudden." 

Naomi turned slowly, "How can you tell?" 

"Because they never had a chance to break formation and try to escape. Even their mobile suits didn't get very far." 

Brian thought for a moment and decided it seemed to make sense. "Then whatever it was it happened VERY quickly... still, what the hell could have taken out an entire Zeon battlegroup so easily? To take a group this size all at once you'd need at least a dozen ships." 

The hatch to the bridge opened, Ryo entered still in his pilot's suit, his face flushed with sweat, his eyes distant and anxious. Captain Shiden spun his chair around immediately and met him face to face as he came in with a simple, "Well?" 

Ryo looked him dead in the eyes, took a slow breath and said to the entire room, "It's the Ganges, sir. No doubt about it." 

_Marquis' flag ship... what the hell happened to them? _Captain Shiden nodded, and turned around slowly to the front of the bridge. "Commander Wilson, those ships were destroyed less than 24 hours ago. I'm putting your squad on double shifts as of right now. I suggest you all pitch a tent in the hangar deck." 

Naomi grabbed Brian and Rico by the collars and dragged them off the bridge toward the normal suit locker room. 

Ryo followed shortly behind them, muttering under his breath, "Damn... that desk-job at Jaburo is startin to look real good about now..." 

"Amen to that," Naomi said, glancing over her shoulder with a nervous grin. "Ryo, if we make it through this, I promise sign your transfer papers." 

Ryo smirked at her. "I'll make you a deal, Commander: you buy the farm out there, we'll staple your panties to the forward deck as a hood ornament. If I die, that stash of instant ramen in my quarters is all yours." 

At this, Naomi spun around quickly and shook Ryo's hand. "You got yourself a deal."  
  
  


_- 2015 hours (CST) - _   
Captain Emeril looked at his radar screen in puzzlement. Surely the target before them wasn't one of the stragglers from the Marquis fleet, but it was moving very slowly and seemed to be suffering from lingering battle damage. "Can you trace it's course, Ensign?" 

The radar officer ran it through the computer, but came up empty. "Not in the Shoal Zone, sir... it IS a Feddy warship, but he's running with his IFF beacon turned off. That means either he's looking for us, or..." 

"... or someone's looking for him." The Captain had to weigh his options in this one. With the Titans capture of Green Noa-II, the Marquis fleet had broken up and scattered in all directions, hiding themselves anywhere they could in remote corners and not-so-remote corners throughout the Earth Sphere. Some had taken up piracy, some had started guerilla campaigns against the Federation, some had simply scuttled their warships and vanished into thin air... no matter the case, the entire Federal Force fleet and all of the Titans had mobilized like never before to hunt down their remnants and anyone who might be caught harboring them. A lone Federation warship wandering in the Shoal Zone was a rare sight in days like this. "Duncan, Vanessa, you're clear to proceed... but with caution. This might be some kind of ploy." 

Far out from the Titov, nestled tightly in a section of colony wreckage, the two GM-Customs switched off the safeties on their weapons and prepared to emerge from hiding. Duncan poked his head out from behind the metal and watched as the cruiser passed by a dozen kilometers overhead, just starting to turn its flank to them as it went. "Remember Sis, we're in GM units now. They won't fire on us unless we do something suspicious, and even then they'll probably warn us first." 

"I got it. Ready when you are." 

Duncan took one last moment to check his systems, then squeezed his controls and pushed the throttles forward. "Go now!" 

Both GMs burst from concealment, circling wide on a spiral course that would bring them towards the cruiser at high speed but without closing in quickly enough to panic the gunners... yet as soon as the cruiser noticed their presence, all of its point defense guns took aim and immediately opened fire for all they were worth. 

At the speed the two of them were moving it was hardly a threat to them, but that alone was enough to frustrate Vanessa. "They won't shoot at us, huh Deuce?" 

He chuckled, somewhat embarrassed. "Okay, I stand corrected!" 

Neither of them even needed to ask for support, but relied on Captain Emeril to be able to figure out what needed to happen next. This time, luck prevailed over Emeril's inexperience; a single blast of mega particles crossed in front of the cruiser's hull, and then another one at the same position and the same distance just above and in front of the bow of the ship. The twin warning shots were both followed by a colored "cease fire" signal flare, and after just a few moments the cruiser's defense guns fell silent. 

"Well, that settles that..." Vanessa threw caution to the wind and redirected her approach to fly straight in at full speed. Just before passing the hull she tipped backwards and reversed thrust, stopping in space just in front of the bridge, then spinning back around to plant her feet on the deck just forward of the main bridge, "Do you read me? This is Vanessa Marquis of the AEUG to Federation warship. Identify yourself." 

Captain Henken Bekner breathed an extended sigh of relief, especially upon seeing the dark blue and green pain scheme of the mobile suit standing on his deck. He found it funny in a way: he never imagined he would have been so happy to be intercepted by an AEUG unit. "This Captain Bekner of the cruiser Montblanc... formerly of the Earth Federal Space Forces." 

Duncan slowly moved up alongside of the ship, hanging in space just next to the blown-out shell of the ship's main gun. "Formerly?" 

"We had a little disagreement with some Titans about a month ago and they've been chasing us across the universe ever since. We're short on fuel and ammunition... and we're just starting to run thin on food rations too. Piracy is alot harder than it looks, you know." 

Vanessa and Duncan both got the same idea at roughly the same time... fortunately, Duncan was the first to say what both of them were thinking. "If you don't like Titans, that makes us friends." 

"We hate the Titans," Henken corrected, "That makes us comrades." 

"Even better." Duncan moved far forward of the hull and started to fly ahead of the cruiser. "Take up formation alongside the Titov and we'll take your ship to a secure location to be repaired and restocked." 

"Understood. Moving out now... um, we only have one engine operational." 

"That's no problem, Montblanc. We have all the time in the world." 


	17. Chapter 16: Friend or Foe

_A successful leader chooses one of two methods of control: he either inspires his people to obey out of love and devotion, or strikes such fear into their hearts that they dare not defy his will. Yet, there are some in this world who can do both at once, people neither intimidating nor charming, but whose overwhelming strength of character commands the admiration and respect of everyone around him. If you meet such a person, you will meet your future; if you follow such a person, you will become a part of your future._  
- Zeon Zum Daikun  


* * *

**Chapter 16: Friend or Foe  
**   
  
_- April 27, UC 0084 -   
- 2134 hours (CST) - _  
"We've collected all the data from the new Titans weapon and sealed it in a disaster pod in the cargo hold, hopefully it will hold up to whatever else happens. Captain McCullough served his duty, and met his end like a Zeon, and in his death he was able to provide more data on the enemy than he ever could in life. We've been pouring over it all for the past week but so far we haven't found anything that even resembles a weakness... it's a perfect killing machine, a goddamn mechanized warlord. We can't even put a dent in him and yet I've seen him take out six of my ships and over two thousand of my people in the past two weeks. And now it's almost my turn... our time is running out. The Dogos Gaia is tracking us and it's only a matter of time before she zeros in for the kill. We'll fight to the very last man, even if they do launch that demon against us.

"Whoever finds this log, if anyone does find it in time to make a difference, I can only hope that my final words reach my beloved children, Duncan and Vanessa. The last hope for Zeon—for all of the freedom loving colonies—rests in their hands now. Vanessa has been training with our trump card, possibly the only weapon in existence that could even stand a chance against that pet monster of theirs. But more than anything, I want Vanessa and Duncan to know that I am proud of them, and that I am with them always no matter what happens. My time may be short, but I intend to give those Titan bastards hell… Sieg Zeon."

Chief Watson clicked off the monitor and returned the screen to the scrolling bits of data extracted from the same wrecked computer aboard the Ganges. "That entry was recorded exactly twenty minutes before the Ganges was destroyed. Marquise was right about the Dogos Gaia homing in, but I don't think he realized how close they really were."

Naomi nodded, a feeling of sadness washing over her at the thought of Marquis' last stand. She shook it after a moment and then picked up the briefing, "We've decoded the data from their computer and cross referenced it with our own files on the Flash Gundam. The new data seems to confirm the old except..." She switched to an image taken from a Gelgoog's gun camera, showing a small cylindrical object floating in space, firing some kind of energy beam from one end, "... the Titans seem to have made a technological leap since the last stage of the project. These bit weapons are designed to respond to newtype input and can be operated by remote from ranges of up to ten thousand kilometers, depending on the abilities of the pilot. In close combat, they can be used to overwhelm their enemies from all sides, or to riddle enemy warships with beams and literally carve them up like thanksgiving turkeys. The battle damage from the Ganges seems consistent with a high volume of laser attacks from multiple directions at once."

Ryo whistled and leaned back in his chair. "No wonder they took out Marquis so quickly. The bits swarm up and chop up the warship while the Gundam takes out another target. The Admiral would barely have had time to kiss his ass goodbye."

"Which brings us to their second modification, something I've been fearing for a long time..." The image became one of a flickering disk over the torso of the mobile suit, shortly after contact with a Rickdom's beam gun. "This scattering beam cannon appears to be a miniature of a larger device mounted on Zeon mobile armors. The most similar example was mounted on the Apsalus series in Southeast Asia, but was hundreds of times larger and six times as powerful. This smaller version retains some of the same abilities, and is capable of focusing beam energy in specified patterns to attack multiple targets at once. In addition," She zoomed in on the image on screen, "It would seem that concentrating energy in the force chamber produces a high-density I-field. Beam weapons will be useless against it, but it will only be able to screen the mobile suit's primary systems." At the highest resolution, they could just see the point where the beam struck the threshold of the I-field, scattering into a ripple like a pebble into still water. When the reaction faded, the mobile suit continued without so much as a scratch on its paint. 

Eric looked at a printout of some of the data and scratched his head anxiously. "So we can't use beam weapons, and that thing's got more armor than a nuke bunker. Even the Zaku's 180mm bounced right off it." 

"It's reasonable to assume a hyper bazooka loaded with H.E.A.T. ammo should be able to punch through, but even then you have to hit it in just the right spot." Naomi changed over to an older technical readout from the computer, "Most mobile suits use one or two ultracompact fusion reactors for power, but the Flash Gundam draws too much energy. They're powered by two large-scale, multi-chamber reactors like you'd expect to find running a small space station. That leaves them with a really bad thermal problem they still haven't been able to solve, and the coolant systems are over their limit. That mean it can't use it's I-field or beam weapons for an extended period of time before the reactor overheats and they have to break from combat. They compensate for this with a highly elaborate radiator configuration, and as a result..." 

"The radiators are delicate." Mike said, following the logic. 

"And prone to malfunctions. The ports for the radiators are reinforced and VERY heavily armored. You'll have to get through that to get to em, with or without beam weapons. Your best option is to put on a lot of pressure with a beam rifle, wait for him to drop his I-field, then follow up with a missile spread or a bazooka round." 

Brian groaned slightly, "Easier said than done, commander. In a combat situation, we might not have the luxury of good timing." 

She looked around the room at a small army of skeptical faces and frowned. "Well, you're only other option is to try and take out the scatter beam on the chest. You damage that, he won't be able to maintain an I-field, and his main weapon will be out of action as well. It's a much better protected target than the radiators, but destroying it will solve a lot of your problems." 

One of the younger core fighter pilots, wallowing in inexperience, made his voice heard for the first time, "Skipper, do we have enough data to run some simulations before we have to fight this thing?" 

Naomi thought for a moment, but Ryo answered for her, "Technically, we do... however the environment, but mostly the pilot, usually account for a differences in mobile suit's performance. Even the Flash Gundam is only as good as its pilot." 

"And whoever's piloting it is a freakin maniac." Eric grumbled under his breath. 

Another one of the core fighter pilots, this one much younger than the previous one, stood tall and spoke her piece boldly, "Commander, I may be a wet-behind-the-ears rookie from Chicago, but what's the point briefing us about a new Titans weapon? This thing just wiped out an entire Zeon battlegroup, shouldn't we be celebrating?" 

Naomi smiled, and for the sake of the newbee decided to enlighten the entire crew with a fresh reminder, "I suppose that's a fair question," she turned slightly and rolled up her sleeve, giving them an eyeful of the mark on her shoulder, the number "07" imposed over a Federation cross. "But I'll ask you to trust my judgment on this one. The Flash Gundam just wiped out an entire battle group, who do you think it will come after next?" 

"Why us?" 

"Because we're expendable." Ryo answered with a cynical chuckle, "There's bad blood between Naomi and Carter. He could waste us in a hot minute and tell Jaburo the Ganges jumped us." 

The young pilot rasied a brow, "That's an awful paranoid theory isn't it?" 

The other core fighter pilot jumped up suddenly, "Paranoid my ass! Don't any of you read Angler?!" 

This got the attention of everyone in the room... especially Brian, perhaps the only one of them with an active subscription, "What about it?" He said cautiously. 

"Two ships, the Montblanc and the Somalia, were both reported missing in the official press releases about a month ago. But two weeks ago, a transport ship running supplies to a space dock just outside the Shoal Zone... you know, there's a lot of civilian docks out there to support the reclamation programs to rebuild lost colonies and salvage..." 

"Get to the point, Ensign." Lucy stabbed harshly. 

"When the transport got there, they found the dock, the Somalia, and two civilian shuttles all shot to hell. The way the article described it, it sounds exactly like what happened to the Ganges." 

Eric scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder what happened to the Montblanc?" 

Feeling the subject starting to drift, Naomi took the reigns again, "Chief Watson pulled the hard drive from their navigational computers and we're moving to follow the Ganges' previous course. The Captain thinks they might be headed to a rendezvous point with another group so I want the core fighter squad to run a perimeter patrol and give us some eyes. If you see so much as a French Poodle, you report in immediately. As for the rest of you... I suggest you take what data we have on the Flash Gundam and run a few simulations while you have time. Set you're A.I. to highest aggression and fastest reaction time, and you should at least get a taste of the real thing." She waited a few moments, then added, "Any questions?" 

She hadn't expected any, but Eric had one, "Commander, do you have any idea why they only attack one at a time?" 

It came clear to her that everyone else in the room had wondered the same thing. She answered the only way she knew how. "They can't. Not without me." 

"What do you mean without you?" 

"The only way they can work as a team is if the lead unit is piloted by a newtype with a stronger will than theirs. Mine, unfortunately, was TOO strong, so their mental programming didn't stick for long. But from everything we've seen lately, I think it's safe to assume they've found a new pilot for the lead unit, which means it's only a matter of time before the other three adapt to it and synchronize with his patterns." 

"Why does it take so long?" Lucy asked, 

"They're like berserkers. The psychommu interface is designed to drive them into a homicidal rampage. If they're not in perfect synch when they attack, they'll turn on each other in the middle of a battle. Our only chance is to take out the lead unit, which so far we have the least data on. The lead suit is always the most dangerous, so approach with extreme caution." She paused again, and repeated, "Any more questions?" This time no one answered, and with a wave of her hand she dismissed them, "Get to your stations." 

They all stood in unison, saluted, and filed out of the briefing room in one mass, scattering into the ship to return to their duties or to launch bays to begin their sorties. Brian stopped briefly and whispered in her ear, "I'll grab you something from the mess hall."

"Nothing too spicy," she whispered back as he slipped past her to follow the others out of the room. 

Second to last from the hatch, Lieutenant Swanson felt a yank on his uniform and a sudden change in direction as Naomi snatched him back into the room by his collar. He felt like he was being jerked around by an angry mother in law, right up to the point where Naomi shoved him against the wall and stared at him with a severely anxious expression. "Is there something bothering you, Lieutenant?" 

"Bothering me?" 

"Ever since I came aboard this ship you've been a complete asshole and a blowhard. But after Riah... now you're nervous, you ask a lot of questions, you're hesitant, you're wishy-washy... dammit, Eric, you're turning into a pussy." 

Eric groaned and stared at his feet. "Well, I... you see... I think..." 

"Think what?" 

This time he looked up, with a fear and uncertainty in his eyes she had never seen before, "I don't know how to say this Commander, but I think it's over for me. When they nailed me on Riah, that should have been the end of it, but here I am, still alive, still piloting mobile suits off a carrier. Why is that, you think?" 

"You were lucky, Eric..." 

"No, I was spared. It was deliberate. You see, I've been thinking about this a lot since I woke up... and how we lost Chase, and then after what happened to Alice... I feel like death skipped over me for some reason. I should have died out there... maybe I did." 

This was the kind of talk she had heard before, the kind of thing a man said who both dreaded and caused his own demise, "Lieutenant, now is not the time for..." 

"Naomi, I'm living on borrowed time here, I'm a dead man walking. Riah was my chance for redemption, and unless I learn from it there won't be another! If I go up against that Flash Gundam, I'm fragged for sure..." 

True to her patterns, he arm rose to one side, then flew across his face and slapped him into a 360 degree spin, "So you're fragged! BIG DEAL! Show some cahones and go out with some dignity! Even Alice died like a soldier, not bitching and whining like a sissy!" It didn't seem to improve his mood any, so Naomi resorted to plan-B, "If you don't stop this fear-of-death crap, I'll wup your ass from bow to stern! Maybe THEN you'll remember how you used to be before Riah!" 

The memory of his various punishments for his fits of jackasery were memories he would have liked to forget... some spark of his old self still dwelt with those memories. "Yes, Commander!" He stood at attention and saluted, then boldly marched out of the briefing room towards his alert station.

  
_- April 28, UC 0084 -   
- 0120 hours (CST) - _  
Most of Konpei Island was still asleep now, well after midnight, and the asteroid base even cloaked in the shadow of the Earth to create the illusion of night at least for the next three hours. Lieutenant Pardo, the officer of the watch, primarily in charge of docking and launch operations for Konpei Island's primary spaceport, leaned back in his chair, stretched his arms and yawned deeply in near exhaustion. "I think I could get used to the graveyard shift..." He muttered more to himself than anyone. 

One of the younger officers glanced at him questioningly, "I may be new here, Lieutenant, but how can you say that? The graveyard shift is when all the weird stuff happens." 

"Weird stuff like what?" 

"If you keep this post long enough you'll see what I mean." 

Lieutenant Pardo rolled his eyes and kicked his feet up on his consol. "May be like that on Luna-II, but here at Konpei Island the weirdest thing we see is a drunkard in a normal suit pissing on the hull." 

"What about the Delaz Fleet?" 

"That was the morning shift. Trust me, Ensign, this is the most boring and uneventful assignment in the Federation, and God willing it'll stay that..." 

"What the hell?" The younger officer looked at his consol in alarm, then checked the debarking schedules for the night on the next monitor, "Hey Lieutenant, do we have any ships scheduled for departure right now?" 

Pardo sat up slightly and looked at his screen, but waved it off and kicked back again. "That's just Enterprise powering up. Captain Synapse likes to be ready for emergencies, so he warms up his engines every night." 

The younger officer looked more closely. "I know that sir, but the Enterprise isn't the only one." 

This time Pardo sat up and looked more closely, "Odd... The Bounty and the Challenger are powering up..." 

"And the Hood, sir." 

Pardo keyed up first on the Enterprise's frequency and hailed the bridge directly, "This is Konpei Island docking control to Enterprise, we show your vessel powering up. Please explain." 

Captain Synapse responded on the monitor with his usual coolness, "Just heating the nozzles for the day. Captain Forsyth and Dallas decided to join in this time. I think I'm starting a new trend." 

Pardo sighed and nodded at the screen. "Understood, Enterprise. Carry on." Pardo kicked his feet up again and patted the younger Ensign on the head. "See, kid? Nothing to worry about. Told you, this aint Luna-II..." 

The red lights flashed and the alarms began screaming their battle stations call throughout the control room, at once snapping Pardo out of his complacency and sending him flying into action on his control panel. Far above them in the main command station, Admiral DeGrasso watched the display on the long-range radar and ground his teeth anxiously as the radar officer analyzed the data, "Targets confirmed. Three mobile suits heading 208 minus 110, range seventeen thousand, closing fast. Targets identified as RGM-79C models from the 84th mobile suit team. They don't respond to hails." 

DeGrasso rasied a brow. "84th Team? Isn't that the Montblanc's compliment?" 

"Yes sir, under Captain Henken Bekner." 

The Admiral wasn't sure this was an attack, but in his gut something about this situation seemed very wrong. If the Montblanc's mobile suits were here, that meant the ship itself probably wasn't far behind them... "But the ship's been missing for over a month now," He said thinking out loud, "And if they're finally returning to port after all this time, why launch mobile suits?" 

The radar officer glanced back over his shoulder, "Maybe they were captured, sir?" 

"The report from the Titans says the ship was destroyed... but I never did trust those black coated thugs..." 

The defense network officer behind him reported, "Interceptors launched, sir. 23rd and 29th mobile suit team, four minutes to intercept." 

"Keep me posted... tell them to get visual confirmation of the targets before opening fire." 

Another alarm sounded from the zone security station below them and the younger officer shouted up to the Admiral, "Second contact! Three unidentified warships heading 103 plus fifteen! They're coming out of the Shoal Zone!" 

"IFF response?" 

"They're all using Federation codes, but the computer can't determine which ships they are... sir, they're just passing the third marker and they're accelerating! They'll be in missile range in fifteen minutes!" 

DeGrasso felt like he was being toyed with. Everything about this situation told him this was an attack, and yet his instincts warned him of the fundamental insincerity behind this situation. "Do we have any ships ready to launch right now?" 

Lieutenant Pardo almost chuckled at the coincidence, called up to the command station above him, "We have four ships in the dock running engines hot, Admiral. Captain Synapse and three others." 

Even the Admiral counted this as an amazing stroke of luck. "Give the Enterprise launch clearance, and have them intercept those ships." Even as he gave the order, the thought dawned on him from nowhere, The gunsat network should have spotted them before they got this close... sabotage? 

Out in space, the RGM-79C interceptors rose from the asteroid base in two groups, hoping to catch the approaching mobile suits in a crossfire should any of them turn out to be hostile. Their long-range sensors couldn't identify them for some reason, but the IFF tracking on the computer kept calling them GMs from the Montblanc's unit. The lead pilot wasn't about to be caught unawares, with his 90mm machine gun already armed and the safetys off. "Look sharp, people. You never know what they might be up to..." Another few seconds and the approaching suits would be coming into range. He switched his monitors to zoom in to maximum and squinted at the image, and the mobile suits before him began to take shape... 

In the blink of an eye, three became six, and in another blink of an eye a flash of light burst from the center of the image and came rushing towards him. "Incoming fi...!" The beam tore right through the cockpit before the words even left his mouth, and his mobile suit vanished in a fireball even as a massive salvo of fire rained down on his comrades and scattered their formation in all directions. The other mobile suits, hiding behind the first three to fool their radar, parted with them there and immediately turned to open fire on the second group of mobile suits with much the same results. 

Panic erupted in the control room, and the Zone Security officer burst to his feet with the call, "29th Team is taking fire!" 

The image from the observation camera came in finally and the operations officer put it on screen. Four of them DeGrasso recognized as the MS-57 Hercules models they'd seen fighting at Riah... but he found the other two immensely puzzling. They seemed to be very slender machines with very broad shoulders, and everything about them screamed "space-use." These were a new type of mobile suit he had never seen before, painted in black and grey colors to make it harder for anyone to get a good look at their details against the starry background. There were no markings and little color to them, but anyone seeing what was happening knew immediately who they were, "Issue an emergency scramble!" The Admiral shouted, "AEUG mobile suits are attacking Konpei Island! All mobile suits scramble immediately!" 

A few miles below them at the primary space gate, the cruiser Enterprise emerged from the gigantic opening, followed closely by its three companion ships on their way to intercept the onrushing AEUG task force. Captain Synapse was grinning like a cat, inwardly congratulating himself on a job-well-done. The hardest part of this gamble was liberating the crew of the Leonov from captivity without anyone knowing, and even harder was replacing them with the non-cooperative crewmembers of the four ships now under his control. The operation had been carried out with textbook precision, and by the time anyone in the Federation knew what was going on they would be long gone. 

He looked at the tactical readout and watched as the Challenger cleared the port, the last of the four ships to leave Konpei Island on what was about to become a mad dash to freedom. "Enterprise to Challenger, once you're clear of the dock, take up a formation alongside the Enterprise's starboard flank at one thousand meters, ten degrees back." 

Sitting triumphantly in the Captain's Chair, the blood of the former commanding officer still staining the deck at her feet, Lieutenant Larson nodded at the helmsman, who started to maneuver the ship with the gentle touch of a professional. "That's a standard Feddy picket formation." Gwen said, recalling the last time she had seen it so many years ago. "Jason, how's she handling?" 

The helmsman tapped his controls more, then groaned. "It's a little different from the Leonov, but I'll get used to it." 

"You better. This ship's gonna be our home for a while." She leaned back on her seat and watched on the monitor as Konpei Island began to shrink away from them, the faint lights of battle from the diversionary force flickering far above the base on the opposite side. "Now I wish I could see the look on their faces when they see the surprise we left them in the space gate..." 

Far above the asteroid, Apolli's sensors let out a high-pitched proximity warning as his sensors suddenly registered a dozen more contacts closing in around them. "Damn... time to go!" He locked on quickly and fired one last salvo at the enemy, scoring a hit on one of the GMs before turning his tail to them and making a run for the Shoal Zone at top speed. Roberto dropped in behind him after a moment, followed shortly by Lieutenant Mackenzie and the rest of the Hercules squad. All six light mobile suits could easily outrun the Federation suits with no problem, but as the pursuing units fired round after round over their heads in a bid to keep them from escaping, sweat started to build up on their faces. "You think maybe we were a bit premature volunteering for this mission?" Apolli grumbled. 

Chris squeezed her throttles as a burst of machinegun fire zipped past her shoulder, not daring to look back and see how close the enemy had been who fired the shot. "Speak for yourself, Apolli! You know how thin the armor is on this thing?!" 

"Point taken... let's just hurry up and get back to the Scarface before things get too hairy!"  


******  


Admiral DeGrasso felt the tension in the control room had begun to subside, and he felt the situation slowly coming back under control. The enemy mobile suits were making a run for it, the approaching warships had halted their advance, and in only a few seconds the Enterprise's interception force would be in firing range. Thirty years of naval experience told him that the AEUG was about to learn the hard way what the price was for challenging the Federation. He counted off the seconds as the Enterprise and battle group closed in... and then saw the energy spike on his screen as the four Salamis cruisers all opened fire. "We've got em now. Docking control, how long until we can send reinforcements to the Enterprise?" 

"The Iowa's reporting they can get underway in ten minutes once the..." Something that sounded like a thunderbolt echoed through the carved-out walls of the asteroid, followed by a frightening shudder and a sudden flickering of the lights and monitors, then another shudder and everything in the room went black. Everything was silent for more than a minute until the emergency power supply kicked in, bringing the lights and monitors back on line to display to their users an endless series of damage reports. 

DeGrasso's base supervisor could hardly believe his eyes. "Sir, damage reports indicate... main space gate destroyed... main generators destroyed... gravity block decompressed... fires in number seven and fifteen wet docks... mobile suit hangars in S-field all report fires... secondary explosions in fuel depot..." 

Admiral DeGrasso sank into his chair and buried his face in his hands. Nothing his computers were showing him was true now, except perhaps for the damage to the main generators half a mile beneath his feet. The rest of it was a computing error, and an intentional one at that; it would take them hours just to figure out which damage reports were real and which ones were false reports pre-programmed into the backup computer by the saboteur. And he didn't even have to look up at the long-range radar to see what he even now suspected must be true: the Enterprise and its three cruisers had ceased fire, and now joined in a cruising formation with the three AEUG vessels on their way out of the area. 

His humiliation now complete, Admiral DeGrasso was left with no other choice. "Communications," He said sadly, "Send a report to Titans HQ in Jaburo. Advise them of the situation... and cancel the IFF codes of Enterprise's group, as well as the Montblanc." _Now,_ he thought grimly, _To try and explain this to Colonel Bosque..._  
  
  


_- 1021 hours (CST) - _  
The Tarawa's four core fighters made another slow pass of their recent find, scanning for any heat sources or unusual radar spikes that might suggest that the flotilla of civilian transports they had stumbled across were carrying any kinds of weapons. For the third time, the lead pilot confirmed that the entire formation of shuttles and freighters were practically sitting ducks, but following orders they continued to circle the convoy as the Tarawa and her two cruiser escorts approached them from the rear, single file to avoid panicking the civilian pilots. 

Just with a rough estimate, Captain Shiden counted off at least two dozen ships, following one massive freighter in a clumsy formation whose only intent was to keep them from crashing into one another during course changes. They were vessels of all shapes and sizes: standard passenger shuttles, oil tankers, cruise liners, yachts, HLVs, and even a pair of Panzock class supply ships from the old Zeon fleet, undoubtedly loaded to capacity with refugees from Green-Noa, who would sooner chew through their own legs than live in a Titans occupied colony. 

There was no semblance of a hostile action, nothing so much as an agitated firing of thrusters to put a few other ships between themselves and the Federation squadron moving into escort formation alongside them. Captain Shiden saw this as a good sign, and had Ensign Holland send out a general hail on all civilian frequencies, "This is the EFS Tarawa to civilian transports, maintain formation and set course for the following coordinates. The Federation cruiser group will escort you to Granada to be processed. We know this has been difficult for you, but with your cooperation we hope this situation can be settled quickly and easily." 

Captain Shiden listened as the Ensign to repeated the message in Japanese and Spanish, and anxiously messaged his scalp under his cap while he considered the situation. Commander Wilson could sense his nerves acting up again; she gingerly rested her hand on his shoulder. "Something bothering you, Sir?" 

The Captain tried to smile, but ended up in a bit of a grimace. "Just doing a little rough calculation. Assuming all those ships are filled to max capacity, there could be as many as three thousand people in that convoy..." 

"Probably more." She said, sensing his next thoughts. 

"That's what I'm afraid of. If anything it means they won't do anything to jeopardize the civilians until they make it someplace safe... on the other hand, I can barely imagine the logistical nightmare of having to inspect and question three thousand refugees and figure out which ones to bring up on charges." 

Naomi sighed and folded her arms. "It would be a lot easier to just flag all their IDs. Even if there are soldiers among them, there's little they can do without weapons. All we really have to do is search the ships, screen all the passengers, and then wash our hands of the whole matter." 

The Captain looked over the stretch of transports again, his mind drawing on twenty years of naval experience and fearing the worst as usual. "I wish it were that simple, Commander. If those men get recruited up by the AEUG, it won't be long before we run into them again." 

Experience, as always complimented by youthful observance, "And what can we do about that? The AEUG will get to them sooner or later no matter what we do. We don't give them anything to be pissed about, maybe they won't return their calls." 

"That, Commander Wilson, is a very good..." 

Lieutenant Browning's radar screen squealed a desperate warning, a proximity alert indicating someone or something had approached too close to the ship behind a curtain of Minovsky particles. Captain Shiden and Commander Wilson both looked up as Lieutenant Browning read off the data, "Scanning four ships inbound... an Alexandria and three Salamis class. Confirming IFF response..." He frowned in disgust, and slowly dropped his eyes to Naomi, "It's the Agamemnon." 

Everyone in the room felt the air turn to soup, and Naomi immediately began gritting her teeth. "Dyson," She growled to no one in particular. 

Browning did another scan, then caught his breath, "My God... they're approaching in attack formation! Minovsky particles are approaching combat density... we're only picking them up because of the static field from all those transport engines is screwin up the I-field." 

"Range?" 

"Twelve hundred kilometers and closing." 

_Not stopping by for a cup of tea, are you Dyson?_ It took the Captain all of ten seconds to run the information and make up his mind. "Battle stations! Mobile suit teams, standby to launch! Commander Wilson..." He turned around just in time to see the hatch close behind her, then turned back to the front and concentrated on his task. "Fire control, open the main gun and standby anti-missiles." 

In a matter of moments, the entire ship was standing ready for combat with its mega particle cannons exposed to space and all of its point defense batteries bristling from behind their armored hatches. The two Salamis cruisers, taking a cue from the carrier, immediately followed suit, raising all four of their GMs to the deck to in preparation for a battle. 

It stood to reason that the Titans had been watching the Tarawa for some time by now, hence their preference to approach them as they would an enemy, flooding the area with Minovsky particles, already positioned to strike. The Tarawa was well within firing range of the Agamemnon by now... but then it dawned on the Captain that the Titans approach put them on the opposite side from the civilian transports they were now escorting. Going into battle stations was his way of showing Admiral Dyson he had been spotted, so Captain Shiden was not at all surprised when a laser-communiqué from the Agamemnon popped up on the main screen. 

Dyson seemed annoyed with the whole situation, but somehow he managed to force himself to smile. "Captain Shiden, we thank you for detaining these fugitives before they could escape, but the Titans fleet can take it from here. Please disengage from your escort duties immediately." 

Any other day, Shiden would have gritted his teeth and obeyed with clenched fists, but for some reason he was not in a cooperative mood today. "We have the situation under control, Rear Admiral. Unless you have orders from Vice Admiral DeGrasso, protocol states that ..." 

"I know protocol, Captain. Now disengage, that is an order." 

He stood up straight on his chair and stared right up into the Admiral's face. "With all due respect, Admiral, I feel the need to ask what your intention is, approaching a friendly warship and a civilian convoy in battle formation. If you are prepared for hostile action, I would like to know the object of your hostility." 

"Don't play games with me, Shiden, I am not in the mood." Browning's screen chirped and the radar display changed; four mobile suits suddenly appeared on the monitor ahead of the Agamemnon, charging towards an intercept with the Tarawa at full throttle. 

Captain Shiden nodded at Ensign Holland, then looked back up to the screen, "This is no game, Admiral." The deck lurched slightly as Lucy's mobile suit burst out of the starboard deck, followed a moment later by Ryo and then Eric's mobile suits. To his mild surprise, the cargo hatches on one of the Panzoks opened suddenly and four mobile suits emerged under their own power, all Gelgoog types wielding machine gun, moving to follow the Tarawa's mobile suits as they moved into formation. For the briefest instant, Captain Shiden wondered why the suits hadn't launched when the Tarawa approached, and then turned all his attention back to the Titans fleet closing on him. "I'm not going to disengage, Admiral. We do not recognize Titans jurisdiction in what is obviously a matter for the Immigration Bureau." 

Something in the statement struck a tender nerve with the Admiral; he quickly closed the radio channel and returned to his seat with an angry huff, "No more games! Mr. Passaroff, target those traitors and fire at will!" 

Everyone on the bridge paused for a half a second and regarded the order, even Commander Passaroff couldn't help but hesitate, "A-Admiral..." 

"You heard me the first time, Commander! FIRE!" 

All four of the Alexandria's main guns adjusted their position, aimed at the Tarawa and all fired in a single massed salvo straight at them. The secondary batteries followed just a moment later, followed by all of the forward guns on the three Salamis class ships. Even at this range, the first shots fired from the Titans ships missed their mark by a hundred meters or so, but the immediate return fire from the Brisbane and the Adelaide was far more accurate. One of the cruisers to starboard of the Agamemnon took a direct hit to its underside, but at such an oblique angle that the outer hull remained relatively intact. Admiral Dyson flinched as one shot passed dangerously close to his bridge, then grit his teeth and pressed forward. "Don't let up the barrage! Fire at will, Commander!" 

A split second later, the main radar screen on the left side of the bridge flashed its motion sensors and Lieutenant Harrida was the first to report on it, "Admiral, mobile suit teams are approaching contact point." 

Oddly enough, Dyson was actually licking his lips. "Launch Bates team in forty seconds! Signal all units to regard the Tarawa as renegade and primary target..." A powerful energy blast from the distance crossed directly over the Alexandria's bow, striking one of the support cruisers just aft of its main gun and ripping out a huge section of its hull. Dyson new it to be the Tarawa's main cannon, a fact that only made his bitterness swell in his gut. Damn you, Naomi, He thought, watching the battle unfold almost too fast for his brain to keep up, _I've been far to lenient with her. Time to put that little bitch back in her place. _


	18. Chapter 17: One Man's Past

_That's it? I sacrificed my home, my family, I left the life I knew to become a soldier, I risked death time and again, battling fearsome enemies who should have eaten me for breakfast, I threw away my innocence and become a soldier, I throw away my soul and become a killer, I lost the love of my life... I left SO MANY comrades dead on the battlefield... and for all that, my reward is a two-rank promotion and a pay-raise?!  
_- Lieutenant Amuro Ray -- January 5, UC 0080  


* * *

  
  
**Chapter 17: One Man's Past**

_- April 28, UC 0084 -  
- 1023 hours (CST) -  
_ By the time the alarms started ringing all over the ship, Lieutenant Matsui's team was just arriving at the starboard mobile suit deck, bounding off the bulkhead and slipping into their mobile suits and powering up for the scramble they all knew would follow. Even as he ran his systems checks, Ryo found himself amazed at Lucy's instincts. _How does she always know?_ He thought, powering up his verniers for launch, a half-digested pork chop still churning in his stomach after Lucy had snatched all of them out of the mess hall without warning. 

The main hatch opened and on cue, Lucy's mobile suit stepped onto the catapult and squatted down for the launch. Ryo felt his mobile suit lurch from the wash of Lucy's verniers as the catapult fired, then stepped onto the catapult himself and fired into space after her. He had only been in space for a few seconds before a blast of mega particles from the Titans ships zipped past them on one side. "Great, we're launching into a fire fight! I love days like this..." 

"Cut the chatter, Izumi. Drop three degrees down and stay clear of the ships line of fire." All three of them were in position now right behind her, and she scanned into the distance where the beams were aimed and finally spotted their objective, "Titans," She muttered in anxiety, "Well whatdya know, it's the Agamemnon!" 

Lieutenant Swanson felt a surge of excitement, "Hot damn! Finally some payback!" 

Izumi's reaction was more restrained, a gradual swelling of burning hatred. _Time to settle the score, Dieter. You've taken one too many people away from me, _His computer chirped as a new plot of heat signatures appeared in front of them, and zooming in more he identified them all as RMS-106 Hizack mobile suits launched from the Agamemnon's escort unit. There were twelve Hizacks in front of him, and looking over his shoulder he could see the vernier flashes from the Brisbane and Adelaide's GM unit. Brian's team hasn't launched yet... "Up ahead Lieutenant," 

"I see em. Eric, Izumi, drop off to the right and peal on their left flank. Leave the right to the GMs." 

"Copy, Lieutenant," Ryo followed Lucy as she changed course suddenly, somehow coinciding with a burst from the Tarawa's main cannons to bathe the three of them in its crimson glow. The Agamemnon immediately fired back along the same lines, and by the time the glare faded and the Titans pilots could see them again, the three Galbaldys were already in position to attack. 

A group of four Hizacks split from the main group and charged in to meet them, with the other eight rolling out and standing their ground in the face of the approaching GMs. Lucy watched a burst of gunfire zip past her cockpit, rolled left and then back right to dodge as their aim became more accurate; only now did she even consider returning fire. "Take the first pass, Eric." 

"Roger that," Swanson pushed his throttles to max, pushed ahead of Ryo and Lucy just enough to give himself a lead on them. When the first Hizack came into range, he raised his shield to them and, opened the launchers and fired all three missiles at the one in the rear, adding to it a few quick pulses from his beam rifle. The Hizack managed to dodge his rifle, but the first missile impacted in the middle of its torso, exploding in the cockpit and tearing through the back of the suit before finally splitting the entire machine in half. 

Lucy took the next one, locking in with her beam rifle at first, then adjusted her aim four marks up at the very last instant and fired twice. The second shot burned struck just below the mobile suit's head and the pilot sprung from the cockpit as the machine disintegrated behind him. 

The lead suit of the Hizack team reversed direction and started to fall back, knowing already it was a hopeless venture; the Galbaldy was much too fast for him to evade them now. "This is Paulson to Agamemnon, I lost Bobby and Sullivan! Send reinforcements bef...!" The rifle burned through his armor just above the radiator, knocking him into a spin for a few moments until his fusion reactor exploded. The last Hizack fired off a long burst from its machinegun in vain before Ryo's rifle struck it down as well, and now all three Galbaldy's charged through the debris towards the Titans warships approaching in the distance. 

"Swanson, Izumi, the escorts will try and screen for that heavy cruiser. Save your missiles for the Agamemnon if you can help it." 

"Roger that. Let's go nail these..." Ryo sensed an attack from just above him, rolled over to his left just in time to avoid a blast from a Hizack's beam rifle. 

He spun around and fired back at his attacker, hitting nothing but empty space as the mobile suit cut back and forth to dodge. He recognized the fighting style even before he heard the cynical laughter on his radio, "Whose side are you on, Ryo? Time to decide!" 

"Found you, Dieter!" He slammed his throttles forward and closed the distance to the Hizack even before Dieter had time to get off another shot, spun around as he passed by and fired off shot after shot as he fell away. Dieter dodged under his fire, answered back with his own rifle, his beam glancing off Ryo's shield. The two of them closed in again and began to circle, testing each others defenses looking for an opening. "First the Zeeks, now the Titans! What, do you have a Gestapo complex?!" 

"Still playing the underdog, huh Ryo?" Dieter stopped his spin and reversed directions, firing off three quick blasts from his beam rifle. 

Ryo dodged over and under his fire, blocking the last one with his shield then fired back with his own rifle, forcing the Hizack to put distance between them again. "You don't even stay loyal to your thugs! You just follow whoever's in power!" 

"Hah! That's just like you to glorify mediocrity!" Dieter fired off another shot from his rifle, then heard a dull click as his capacitors ran dry. He moved quickly to change the E-pac as Ryo fired off another barrage and sent him backpedaling in space. "That's your slave mentality, embracing meekness! It's a shame you weren't annihilated with the rest of the sheep!" 

"Maybe in your Gihrenist philosophy! How many 'sheep' did you kill just to satisfy your power trip?!" Ryo quickly changed pacs on his rifle again and fired off another series of quick pulses, keeping Dieter on the run and preventing him from getting off a close enough shot. Ryo happened to time his move just right, catching the Hizack on the side of the torso and clipping off a section of armor on one side. Dieter yelped in surprise and struggled to maintain control as Ryo closed in to press his attack. Another blast of mega particles from the Tarawa bathed both of them as they battled, ultimately striking one of the Titans ships directly under its bow. 

Ensign Franks saw the explosion on his monitors and let out a triumphant shout, "Direct hit on that Salamis!" 

Captain Shiden swatted the air, watching on the monitor as the lead Salamis cruiser twisted in space belching fire from its insides. The ship wouldn't go down from that hit, but a smart captain would know to pull the ship out of the fight before it was too late. "Alright, now concentrate all firepower on the other two cruisers! Give me a full missile barrage in 20 seconds..." 

There was no announcement from anyone, only a sudden explosion over the radio: "Matsui to Tarawa, they've broken through!" 

The warning brought Captain Shiden to his feet. "How many?!" 

Ensign Browning scanned the area and spotted them after a moment, "Four suits! They're headed for the convoy!" 

The Captain picked up a handset from his chair, his finger already hovering over the proper call button came down, "Commander Wilson, we have incoming!" 

Down in the portside deck, Naomi closed the hatch on the Gundam and grabbed her beam rifle off the rack. "Here they come!" 

Rico's GM launched on the catapult without a word, and Brian and Mike followed under their own power one after another. Naomi followed them out, and all four of them spotted the Titans mobile suits almost immediately and charged after them at full thrust. 

Naomi's scanners IDd them after half a second and she recognized the markings just as quickly, "Those are the guys from Luna!" 

Brian checked for himself and frowned, "The ones who got Alice?" 

"No doubt!" She aimed ahead of them and fired two blasts from her beam rifle, but the Titans suits ignored her and went straight after the civilian ships. "They're going for the convoy! Brian, put some pressure on em!" Just before splitting from his group to get ahead of the GMs, Naomi moved up a bit and rested her hand on the back of the GM's foot, "Brian, don't you get killed out here and leave me all alone!" She pulled away before he could acknowledge and zipped in towards the Titans suits, firing two more shots at the lead suit in an effort to slow their advance. 

Lieutenant Bate ignored her again and pressed on to her target, though in his mind he was only too aware of what might happen if he turned his back on them for any period of time. "Monsha, New Guy, cover my ass!" 

"Ask me nicely, dammit!" The two trailing GM Quells stopped their approach and returned fire at the Gundam, but only now noticed the three GMs already much closer. "How much time you need, Bate?" 

"Just give me two minutes!" Bate and Adel both zeroed in on the largest ship in the formation, one of the massive Panzok class supply ships close to the front. Each of them fired off a pair of bazooka shells from the distance, then fired again as they came close, sinking high-explosives into the cargo compartments from bow to stern. The explosions ripped the vessel open like a can of tuna, some of them even punching all the way through the hull; explosive decompression raged out of control and the vessel began ripping itself apart from the inside. 

Both of them veered off to strafe the second supply ship, but at the last minute Adel glanced back at the ship, "What the hell is...?!" 

Bate glanced back too at the mention of it and stared for a moment, "What's going on here? That transport is supposed to be full of ammunition..." His computer sensed a high-heat source behind him, and he spun around just in time to avoid a blast from Naomi's beam rifle... then it took him half a heartbeat to realize the rifle was not aimed at him, "ADEL!" 

The warning was too late: Naomi's second shot took the GM's head off, the third one burned through the Torso just above the cockpit. Adel's GM was knocked back as if hit in the chest with a cannonball, lingered for a moment before a tremendous fireball erupted from within and demolished the suit completely. 

Monsha and Osborne spotted the explosion even while avoiding fire from Brian's team, but at this point there wasn't enough time for it to register in their minds. "Bate, they're doggin us here! Gimme a hand!" 

Lieutenant Bate would be obliged to do just that, if not for the mobile weapon that suddenly appeared before him with its eyes burning with green fire. "That Gundam..." He growled, discarding his bazooka for a 90mm GM rifle, "Let's see how tough you really are!" 

Lucy and Eric both fishtailed between anti-aircraft fire and a few bursts from defending Hizack suits, finally getting into range of the Agamemnon to press an attack. Eric fired off a few blasts from his beam rifle and Lucy all three of her missiles before the anti-aircraft fire from the heavy cruiser forced them to pull back. One of Eric's shots hit the center of the catapult deck, and two of Lucy's missiles slammed into the starboard engine. 

Admiral Dyson gripped the side of his chair as the cruiser bucked around him, reading the damage reports as they displayed on the main screen above the forward veiwports, "Dammit! Mobile suit teams, fall back and support the battle group immediately...!" A massive salvo from the Tarawa's main guns passed just over the bridge and to the side of the ship, and immediately the Agamemnon's guns fired back. Somehow the gunners managed to line up just the right angle; both of the starboard guns scored hits, one blowing off a section of the Tarawa's wing, the other hitting the portside engine and ripping it wide open, spilling a fireball out into space. 

Dieter heard the signal to pull back, changing to his last E-pac as he did so and carefully plinking at Ryo's mobile suit to try and keep him at bay. "You whine too much, Ryo. You should learn to let go of the past!" 

"Bullshit! You single handedly wiped out my entire colony, Dieter! And for what?! Did any of them deserve it?! DID EMMA DESERVE IT?!" 

"That's what the paupers of humanity were created for!" A blast from Ryo's rifle clipped part of his shoulder armor and knocked him into a spin. He just managed to stabilize in front of him, and in a sudden desperate burst of adrenaline he let fly with his rifle and one of the missile pods on his waist armor. Ryo fired his own three missiles into Dieter's spread, charged through the explosion into a storm of beam fire; one lucky shot hit his rifle's energy pack and Ryo just managed to toss it away before it exploded. The flash from the explosion concealed him until he was close enough; in another instant, Ryo's beam rifle flashed into existence and sliced through his rifle like a hot knife through butter. Dieter drew his own beam rifle and struck out immediately, clashing with Ryo's saber in an effort to drive him back, "No one can stand on the top unless someone else stands on the bottom! Know your place, Ryo!" 

He added a little pressure from his verniers, then reversed suddenly and switched of his beam saber, allowing Dieter to over extend himself. In another instant the saber flared back to life and Ryo struck down on the Hizack, slicing through the right arm just above the elbow. "Even IF that were true, you should have beaten me by now!" 

"I've already beaten you, you just refuse to stay down!" Dieter drew another beam saber just in time to block Ryo's next attack, fired his thrusters and reversed back, hoping to work his way back into range of the Agamemnon's defensive guns. "You can keep challenging your destiny but it won't get you anywhere! As long as you live, you will always be subordinate to those in power!" He fired the missiles from his other pod, and Ryo dodged two of them and caught the third one in his shield; the explosion demolished the shield and most of his left arm, and as the haze cleared Ryo just barely managed to raise his beam saber to block his next attack... 

A burst of gunfire crossed directly between them, forcing both of them apart from each other and causing both to stop and reevaluate their respective positions. A GM custom in dark blue and green markings charged in with a machinegun in either hand, blasting away primary at Dieter's Hizack in a bid to drive him back to his warship and to separate him from his duel with Ryo. When he looked around, he saw at least a dozen other mobile suits likewise entering the battle, filling the sky with shot rifles and heavy machineguns for no other purpose but to intimidate the Titans and drive them back to their ships. One of them fired off a massive bazooka round into the underside of one of the Salamis cruisers, generating an explosion that almost knocked the cruiser into a spin... then another shot from the far distance, this one hitting Dieter's left leg and destroying it below the knee. With his last bit of power he turned and made a run for the Agamemnon, joined by a half dozen other mobile suits likewise retreating from the battle. 

The Agamemnon itself turned away from the battle, its guns still trading punches with the Tarawa even as it began to flee. With only one of its engines still operating the ship's retreat was more than a little sluggish, but with all its mobile suits pulling back as well it was far better than nothing. 

Naomi and Brian's three GMs found themselves giving chase to the 4th team, Bate's GM itself missing half of its armor and riddled with 90mm shells, trailing smoke from both of its legs. One look at the Tarawa and the Adelaide and her mind was already made up not to dare try and pursue them. "Enemy is retreating! Brian, get back to the ship and help with the repairs!" 

"Roger that!" 

While Brian's GM team made a beeline for the stricken Tarawa, Naomi took a few moments to scan around the sky and size up the situation. An additional sixteen mobile suits seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and driven off the Titans, most of them MS-57 Hercules types used by the AEUG. 

Captain Shiden watched the new ships approaching on his monitor, an old Zeon heavy cruiser and what looked like a poor-man's refit of a Columbus class supply ship, with a heavy beam cannon bolted to its upper deck and smaller gun turrets bristling along its flanks. He spotted a flash from a signal lamp on the Tivvay, then his main screen switched on as the approaching ship hailed them, "This is the cruiser Titov to assault carrier Tarawa: we're here to escort you to AEUG territory. We request permission to come aboard." 

Glancing down from his radar station, Lieutenant Browning found it amazing that something so small could bring a smile to the old man's face. "Permission granted, Titov. We're grateful for any support you could lend."

_  
- 1340 hours (CST) -_  
Admiral Carter thumbed through the report to the last page, tired of the technical details and skipping to the engineer's summary. What he saw here made his heart flutter: Lucifer's combat system was everything he thought it would be and so much more. He made sure to take the information with a grain of salt, given that it was tested at the ground-department newtypes by Number Four, but as far as he knew his own pilots could come close to matching Four's newtype responses if he pushed them into combat mode long enough. Just to be sure, he began going through research files and compared the combat data on Four to Nine... 

As if having been invoked by the reading of her profile, the young pilot's voice exploded in anger in the middle of his office, "You lying son of a bitch! You promised!" 

Carter looked up suddenly and found the girl standing there in the middle of the room, a vein standing out on her forehead in what he was sure was a well contained temper tantrum. "How'd you get in here?" 

"How many times do I have to tell you..." She stormed up to his desk and slammed her hands on the desktop hard enough to rattle the bookshelf on the other side of the room, "...through the fucking door!" 

Knowing full well she couldn't see him, Carter glanced down at Nine's psychological profile, grinning at where he had highlighted the note, 'short tempered.' _Biggest understatement of my career, _"Is there... something I can help you with, Lieutenant Nine?" 

"The hell you can! You broke your promise!" 

"Did I? Just exactly did I promise?" 

Nine took a deep breath and clenched her hands into fists. If she could see him she would have punched him by now. "You promised me that if I destroyed the Zeons, you would give me that goddamn operation!" 

Carter grinned. "Oh, that's right. I DID promise that didn't I?" 

She stood upright and stared straight into his eyes, something she did that always made him nervous. "I wiped out the defense forces at Grypps, I destroyed the Ganges, I destroyed the Gagarin, I shot down fifty eight mobile suits..." 

"Don't forget the two convoys you and Miranda nailed." 

"Yeah, those too! I've done everything you asked me to do, Carter! Now what about our agreement?!" 

Carter stood up slowly, and Nine's eyes didn't follow him for a few long moments until she realized he had moved. "You want your sight back?" 

"Yes." 

"You want your memories back?" 

"Yes." 

"You think you've earned them?" 

"Yes, and you know I've earned it! I've kept my end of the bargain..." 

"That's where you and I differ, Lieutenant." Carter stepped out from behind his desk and walked around the back of her, talking almost into her ear, "Our deal was for you to destroy the Zeons occupying Green Noa-II..." 

"... and I've done that..." 

"... ALL of them, not just a few of them. Unfortunately for you, the damn zeeks scattered like roaches when they saw us coming. If you help us track the rest of them down, I will personally take you to a movie to test out your new peepers." 

Her teeth were grinding in her cheeks but for her sake she made every effort to control her rage. "I want your word on that, Carter." 

"You have it. You're my best pilot, I wouldn't betray you like that." 

Her shoulders sagged in disappointment, and seizing the moment, Carter added, "As usual, our deal has one and ONLY one stipulation..." 

"Yes, I know. If I ever betray you, you'll give me to Dyson." 

"And I'm sure you know about Admiral Dyson's little... hobby." 

"How could I forget?" She turned slowly and made for the door, stopping just short of opening it. "Anyways, why would I betray you? You're the only one who can give me what I want." 

"That much is true..." A loud beeping and a flashing on the monitor at his desk warned him of a call from the bridge, "Wait a minute, Nine, this might be important..." He switched on the monitor and looked into the face of his communications officer. "Carter here." 

"Sir, we're getting an emergency signal from Rear-Admiral Dyson. He's tracking a large enemy formation near Side 4, headed for Luna. His ship has taken heavy damage and he's requesting assistance." 

Carter raised a brow. "He knows we're still testing the new mobile suit. Why doesn't he call the Tarawa? They should be patrolling near Side 4..." 

"Sir..." The officer paused for a moment and listened to the rest of the transmission, "Uh... apparently, the Tarawa's gone renegade. They're assisting the AEUG." 

"Son of a... Tell Dyson we'll rendezvous in seven hours." He switched the monitor back off again and looked up at Nine; now she was smiling, already knowing what he was about to ask her. "You won't do it, will you?" 

"Hell no. I'm here to kill Zeeks. You can hunt those Feddy hotshots on your own time." 

She was about to open the door when Admiral Carter stopped, her, "Wait!" She turned back slowly, and listened for what she knew he was about to say, "What if I modify our little deal?" 

"Go on." 

"The Tarawa's top pilot is a former subordinate... in fact, she used to have YOUR job." 

She turned around all the way and grinned. "Go on." 

"She's very dangerous, and so are her comrades. They could do a lot of damage before this is over." 

Now she folded her arms and smiled wider, increasingly pleased with her position with every passing moment. "And...?" 

"You get rid of the Tarawa for me, I'll have your eyes fixed. You get your memories back once you finish with the Zeeks." 

Her smile faded a bit. "Don't bullshit me, Carter. I'm blind but I'm not stupid." 

"You're also a child, don't forget that. Along with your loyalty, you owe me a little respect." 

"I'll wait for you to earn some respect, Carter. Until then, as far as I'm concerned you're still just a pimp with a rank." She turned around again and tapped the keypad, opening the door for her to check her mobile suit for its next mission. "I'll take care of the Tarawa for you... you better not turn out to be ugly!" She said as she left. 

Carter chuckled and looked at himself with a hand mirror. "Heh... Jury's still out on that one, Kid."

_  
- 1550 hours (CST) _   
With the Tarawa's portside engine out of action, all of the warships were on something of a limp... then again, escorting a bunch of civilian ships, they were still forced to reduce speed so some of the slower freighters could keep up. The Titov and Diligent took up the lead of the formation while the Tarawa and her two cruiser supports brought up the rear, a generally modest and ragtag fleet by almost any standards. All were moonward bound, headed for the rendezvous point with AEUG reinforcements at Tycho city, an underground (and underdeveloped) city built a few miles from the lip of Luna's infamous Tycho crater. 

As Captain Emeril looked over the convoy from the bridge of his ship, he kept his faith in Vanessa and Duncan Marquise to represent the AEUG. The tension on the bridge of the Tarawa would have given him severe doubts; all of the pilots, along with any other crewmembers present, couldn't help but eyeball the duo in suspicion, bordering on contempt. "We need some kind of assurances," Naomi said, standing in front of the other pilots, her arms folded across her stomach. "You're not exactly the kind of people we'd consider trustworthy." 

Vanessa stepped forward angrily. "Oh yeah? We just saved your ass out there, Commander! You think you can't afford to trust us, you really don't have another choice!" 

"Hardly. We can choose right now to part ways with you, and let the Titans finish you off. Admiral Dyson is now calling for reinforcements..." 

"You've been following our course, you know our destination. We can't let you leave." 

"Then I guess you're gonna have to fight us, because...!" 

Ryo and Duncan both moved in the exact same way at the exact same time, each yanking the angry representative back by the collar and shushing them into silence. That being done, both Ryo and Duncan met in the middle of the bridge and both took a deep breath. "The tactical situation," Ryo began, "Means that neither of us can afford to move without support of the other." 

"I agree. I think that's obvious to everyone here. The problem is the... social situation." 

Ryo glanced over his shoulder at the suspicious leering and nodded. "Yeah..." 

"It's not like I don't understand. Two months ago we were fighting AGAINST each other..." 

"Two months ago we were fighting against everyone in the universe. We just made enemies with the Titans, that means we have no one else to turn to." Ryo glanced back at the others and addressed everyone at once, "The question is whether we can put the past behind us or not." 

At that statement, Lieutenant Swanson turned and headed for the door. "This is bullshit, Commander." 

"Why, Eric?" Naomi asked gently. 

"You have to ask? That Zeon bitch killed Chase, and now all of a sudden we're bosom buddies?!" 

Ryo sighed. "Nobody likes this arrangement, Eric, but we don't have another choice." 

"I know that. You do what you like, I'm not gonna sit here and listen to this..." Eric closed the hatch behind him, somehow managing to get the system to slam the door for him. 

Naomi glanced back and chuckled, _Well, at least Eric's back to normal again..._

"You're the one who was piloting that Gelgoog, weren't you?" Rico stepped up suddenly, surprising everyone with the action, "You're the guy who killed April?" 

Duncan hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "So what if I am?" 

Rico stared at him for a moment, then glanced at Vanessa, "Aren't you the one Lucy shot down?" 

Vanessa sighed, "Which time?" 

An awkward silence invaded the room, oppressing all of them with the stillness of the air pounding in their ears... and then out of nowhere, Lucy started giggling. Vanessa joined in, followed by Naomi... and then all of them looked at each other and started to laugh. 

Captain Shiden had been listening silently from his chair until now, but at the sound of this he stood up and walked around to the two groups of enemies, _No matter what side they're on, all warriors are bound by honor... _"We've had our differences in the past, but now it's time to focus on things that are important. Our number one priority right now are the three-thousand civilians out there, and then we can worry about the Titans." 

"Agreed, Captain... and for the time being, at least..." Duncan looked around slowly for the seeds of a protest. He found none, and continued, "Welcome to the Anti-Earth United Government." 

"Appreciated." Naomi said earnestly._ They changed the acronym. I wonder... _"Now, I don't suppose you could spare a few hands to repair our port engine?" 

"Of course. The Hercules is designed from a construction suit, after all..." All at once Duncan seemed to remember something, stopped and scanned the group of pilots before him and noticed one absence, "Er... um... where's Alicia?" 

Vanessa tried and failed to suppress a chuckle; Brian raised a brow, "What's so funny?" 

With a grin the size of Neptune, the older Marquise draped her arm around her little brother's shoulders, "Ever since we picked up your transmissions, Deuce has been going on and on about getting to see his little sweetheart again. Ever since this morning, Alice this and Alice that..." 

The atmosphere in the room became suddenly very awkward, yet the remark had driven them all together in some strange way. Everyone knew who got the credit for Alice's death, yet no one within earshot could bring themselves to break the news to the youngster about the demise of his favorite opponent. 

Brian sighed, recalling Alice's attitude had seemed almost exactly the same. "She seemed rather interested in you too, now that I think about it..." 

"Well, where is she?" Duncan said impatiently. 

Brian walked up slowly, put his hand on Duncan's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Patience, little guy. She will be here very soon."

_  
- 1550 hours (CST) -_  
It was a very old building in downtown Sweetwater, erected during the early days of the space colonies, even before the drafting of the Earth Federation. It had originally been built by an American architect for another colony, but just looking around the structure, Lieutenant Larson could see all of the renovations and repair work that had pieced the stack of bricks back together again. She guessed correctly that the AEUG Headquarters building, like half the buildings in this colony, had been salvaged from a shattered colony floating somewhere in the Shoal Zone. Almost everything in Sweetwater seemed to have been recycled from the ruins of the One Year War, from the mirror panels that provided sunlight to the very people who depended on them for warmth. 

The office of Commodore Brex Forra was stuffy and humid, with poor ventilation and even worse lighting, but it was tastefully furnished with a pair of high-backed leather chairs and a sofa on one wall opposite an impressively equipped bookshelf. All this seemed to confirm Gwen's suspicion that this building had probably been the deans building at some colonial university back before the war. "Aren't your legs tired?" The Commodore said at last, gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Have a seat." 

Both of the chairs were angled towards his desk so whoever sat down would be fully encouraged to a three-way conversation. She hadn't seen the face of the other man who had been here when she arrived, but taking the Commodore's suggestion she made herself comfortable and took an eyeful of the other man. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Brex," She said, still keeping one eye on the other man. 

The Commodore smiled and leaned back slightly in his own chair. "Likewise, Ms. Larson. Needless to say, we owe you a debt of gratitude. Thanks to your cooperation, we managed to make off four ships instead of the intended two... this will go a long way in our efforts." 

"Just glad to help out, Commodore." She said, taking her attention off the other man for just a moment. _Where have I seen him before? He looks so familiar..._

Brex seemed to notice her curiosity and decided not to keep her waiting much longer, "Now... this is Lieutenant Quattro Bajina, a recent defector from the Earth Federal Forces and... well, frankly, he's top dog around here as far as the troops are concerned." 

"Is that right?" Gwen sized him up in three seconds; the thick sunglasses, fluffy blond hair, lean build like a wrestler in a dyed-red Federation uniform minus the sleeves... and then the image came crashing down on her from almost a decade ago, a mysterious youngster with the personality of an Admiral and piloting skills of a lifetime veteran. It was hard to believe that this man sitting next to her in Brex's office was the same man she had looked up to for all those years, the man who had years ago given her and hundreds of others like her something more to believe in than where her next paycheck would come from. _So Char is still alive? Maybe there IS a God.._. "A little hero worship, huh?" She said coyly.

Lieutenant Quattro shrugged. "Well, I'm responsible for training the new pilots. The youngsters seem to look up to me for some reason." 

_If they only knew..._ "Well, I'm sure you're qualified for the job, Lieutenant, but of course you realize there's no substitute for experience." 

Lieutenant Quattro nodded. "Indeed. That's why YOU will be heading out on this next mission." 

"Next mission?" 

Commodore Brex sighed, almost regretting having to say what he was about to say. "It's a big mess out there, Lieutenant. We just got a report from the Titov that a convoy of civilian ships fleeing Green Noa-II is under fire from a Titans battle group. Titov managed the intercept, but they've also linked up with a Feddy unit that seems... dissatisfied with Titans policies." 

"I know the feeling," Gwen self-consciously rubbed the still-visible cigarette burns on her arms. "How many civilians?" 

"Three thousand, give or take, and that's a conservative estimate. Emeril thinks there could be twice that." 

"And you just need us to rendezvous with the convoy and escort it back to Sweetwater?" 

"Precisely. Just keep in mind, under the circumstances this will not be as easy as it sounds. As it stands now, you might have to fight your way back to Side 2 from Luna." 

Gwen nodded and made a mental note of it. "Okay, here's the real question: why me? My ship just came into port, she's got a skeleton crew, she needs fuel, ammunition, a new captain..." 

"The resupply for the Challenger is already complete, Lieutenant, considering you stole it from Solomon with its magazines topped off. We've already assigned new crewmen to fill your empty duty stations, as you requested. You may still be shorthanded in a few areas, but it'll be more than enough to keep you up and running." 

"And still, my original question... why me?" 

Lieutenant Quattro leaned forward, plucked a file folder off the Commodore's desk and found the first piece of information he needed, "For one thing, as a former office of the Marquis Fleet you'll be in a better position to deal with the refugees. But besides that, it has to do with the Federation unit the Titov joined up with..." 

Quattro handed her the file: a printout of a Federation service record belonging to... "Commander Naomi Wilson." She said, reading the name out loud and trying her best not to show some emotion. "You've got to be shitting me." 

Brex looked at her in confusion. "You have a problem, Lieutenant?" 

Gwen sighed and slouched heavily in her chair. "I don't know exactly what you've been told about my... er, relationship with Commander Wilson, but... well, sir, we didn't exactly part company on the best of terms. She'd much rather shoot me than talk to me." 

Lieutenant Quattro grinned. "So I've heard. That's exactly why we're sending you." 

Gwen was about to ask another question when Commodore Brex dropped the bomb on her, "And as for the Challenger needing a new Captain, I don't think that will necessary. The one we have now is more than adequate." 

"What are you talking about?" 

The Commodore stood up for his chair, reached into his desk and brought to the surface a small wooden case with an AEUG logo on the cover. He dropped the case into Gwen's lap and declared with a grin, "That's all for now. Good luck on your mission, Captain Larson." 

Gwen's eyes filled with tears. Opening the case, she felt immediately there was something a little odd about accepting an AEUG rank insignia, especially considering how similar it was to the Federation counterpart. Then again, just having it at all seemed like a sudden skyward thrust of achievement. Outwardly she was confused, but inside she felt like grabbing Commodore Brex and giving him a hug. "Th-Thank you, Sir!" 

"Don't thank me. It's the least I could do." 

Gwen closed the box again, stood up sharply and saluted. "Sir, the Challenger will depart on its mission just as soon as the resupply is completed and all personnel are accounted for..." 

"One more thing, Captain," Brex stepped out from behind the desk, and slowly Larson dropped her salute and stood more at ease, "You'll also be transporting a VIP to and from Tycho city on some urgent business. She never asks for much, but I would like you to treat her with the utmost courtesy." 

Gwen looked confused. "What kind of VIP, sir? Top officer or something?" 

"Oh, not at all! Merely a young woman who has contributed significantly to the AEUG... an investor, so to speak. Her most recent contributions helped fund one of our corporate dealings with Anaheim Electronics, so just to show gratitude, we're having you play chauffer for a little while. Sorry about this, but..." 

Gwen nodded. "It's okay, Sir, I understand. Don't worry, she won't even know she's on a warship." 

Brex smiled as Gwen turned to leave the office. "Don't count on that. She's a war-vet herself, you know." 

"In that case, we should get along just fine." Gwen closed the big wooden door behind her and Brex heard the creeping footsteps recede down the hall to the barely-operational elevator next to the barely-useable stairwell. 

Brex sat back down at his desk and sighed. "What kind of world is this, Lieutenant? Our top officers are getting younger every day." 

Quattro frowned. "It's the young people who change the world nowadays. In any case, Gwen Larson is in her forties." 

"Is she really?" The Commodore actually did a double take at the now-vacant chair in his office. "Aging gracefully from the looks of things." He plucked the service record from Quattro's hand and scanned over Commander Wilson's history again. "By the way... what IS the deal between Captain Larson and this pilot? Doesn't seem like a happy relationship..." 

"It's a bit of a long story, Commodore," Quattro knew all of the specifics by now, but to avoid embarrassing AEUG's newest flag officer he decided to keep Brex out of the loop for now, "Suffice to say, Captain Larson was reckless in her youth." 

Brex picked up on the things Quattro did not want to say. "You've met before haven't you?" 

"Once or twice." 

"On what occasion?" 

Lieutenant Quattro paused, took off his sunglasses and looked Brex in the eye, "Hopelessness is a form of spiritual death, Commodore. The condition in which I found Captain Larson years ago... I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." 

Brex stared at him for a few moments, then sighed and stared at the desk top. "Forget I asked." 

"Good idea." Quattro put his sunglasses back on and started out of the office. _And that's how it'll be, Gwen. You keep my secret, I'll keep yours._


	19. Chapter 18: Nine Murasame

_War can be a confusing thing. Sometimes comrades become bitter rivals, sometimes rivals become trusted allies. War tends to divide some people, and brings others together; sometimes it destroys families, only to forge new ones in the fires of the battlefield. _   
- Char Aznable

* * *

  


**Chapter 18: Nine Murasame**  


_- April 28, UC 0084 -   
- 1612 hours (CST) -_   
Lieutenant Anderson was a little surprised to find the door to Naomi's quarters unlocked, but not at all surprised to find the commander sitting on a pillow next to the bed, legs folded, a pair of earphones pumping Lunarian blues straight into her brain. Her eyes were closed, her body seemed almost fluid in a state of utter relaxation. He walked in casually and sat down on the floor in front of her, not even needing to interrupt her as she certainly knew he had arrived. She waited a few moments for the end of the song, then pulled down the headphones and spoke without opening her eyes, "You seem nervous." 

"Just a little jittery with the battle coming up." 

"I know what you mean." Naomi took one slow, deep breath, then finally opened her eyes. "Been meaning to ask you, what is it between Izumi and that Titan?" 

"Who? Dieter Cunningham?" 

Naomi nodded. "Both you and him seem to have some unresolved issues." 

Brian reached his arms back and leaned back on his elbows. "Dieter Cunningham was an officer of Gihren Zabi's Government Police. Those guys get all sorts of assignments, but Dieter's specialty was high-profile assassinations." 

"That explains a lot." Naomi leaned back on her own elbows, matching Brian's leisurely posture exactly. "You know as well as I do where the next attack will come from, don't you?" 

Brian nodded. "I'll be taking the core booster on the next hop. It should be enough to do the job." 

"Let's hope so." She paused a moment, taking a few seconds to ponder the various battle strategies she had worked out before... but catching Brian's gaze she found herself snapping back into the conversation. "What?" 

Brian grinned, "I don't know how you could be so relaxed at a time like this." 

"Beats being frantic." 

"I know but... well, Commander, I just have to hand it to you. You're one of the gutsiest pilots I've ever flown with." 

Naomi chuckled. "I will take that as a compliment." 

"Take it however you like, it's true. You're a bold one, Naomi." 

"Stop it, Brian," She was starting to blush from all the flattery and she knew he could see it, "Is that all you came here for? To come and flirt with me?" 

"No, not at all..." He stared at her for a moment, catching a look of doubt, then sighed and nodded. "Okay, yeah." 

"See, I knew it. You have a crush on your commanding officer don't you?" 

This time it was Brian's turn to blush. "So what if I do? I can't help but admire you." 

Naomi stood up suddenly and walked to the other end of her quarters, ostensibly for a glass of ice water but mainly just to hide the growing pinkness of her cheeks. "Admire me for what?" 

"You're a very strong person, Naomi, someone I could count on to be there." 

"So are you, though. Ever since you came aboard this ship, you've been watching my back..." Somewhere in the corner of her mind, only for a split second, she corrected herself, _Or was that Izumi? _"... like I can trust you with anything now. And the weirdest thing is you haven't even been a member of this crew as long as Eric or Lucy." 

"You don't trust Eric and Lucy?" 

"Of course I do... well, I trust Lucy but Eric has always been a headcase. And especially after Riah, he's getting more and more emotional..." 

"I know what you mean." 

Naomi took a massive gulp of cold water and prayed for a few moments that the tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach would get washed away. "So how come I feel so comfortable around you all of a sudden?" 

Brian stood up walked across the room and stood directly in front of her, "Call it a common background." 

"What do you mean?" 

"We were both orphaned from the time we were little, we both grew up in a lunar basement the rest of humanity simply didn't care about," He stepped just a little closer, suddenly cornering her next to the sink, "And for one thing, I think you're the only one on this ship who understands... who REALLY understands." 

Naomi nodded, despite the sudden fluttering in her stomach and the sweat appearing on her forehead, "You... you lost someone you were trying to protect." 

Brian nodded back. "When I lost Alice, I thought I had lost my reason to keep going..." He trailed off in the end, his eyes wandering to a stop as they locked in with hers. For the longest time they stood there in silence, staring into each others eyes until gravity shifted and they fell towards each other... 

And then the wall fell. 

Naomi grabbed him by the collar, pulled him down to her and kissed him with a passion, at once dragging him halfway across her quarters as she did, finally shoving him backwards onto her bed and launching herself on top of him. Here she paused, lying on his chest, safe and secure in his arms with her knees on either side of his left leg. They lay there together and gazed into each others eyes for more than a minute, then Naomi kissed him again and whispered, "What if I gave you a reason to keep going?" 

Brian smiled. "You already have. It's... you're the only thing I have left, Naomi." 

"And you..." the butterflies in her stomach disappeared, and a burning sensation in her veins took over. She kissed him harder, pulled herself closer into him... and suddenly happened to notice his hands undoing the top button of her trousers, "How much time do we have?" She said automatically. 

Brian smiled playfully. "More than enough."  


  
_- 2104 hours (CST) - _   
Admiral Carter watched the forward hatches on the main launch bay slide open and the first of the escort units launched into space. He wondered for a moment if a single squad of Hizacks would be enough escort for the Flash Gundams against the AEUG, but then he reminded himself that he had watched Nine and Amanda single handedly lay waste to an entire Zeon battlegroup in a matter of minutes, and these small fries ahead of him should be little different. "Unit Six and Nine, launch immediately and intercept those ships. Your primary target is the assault carrier Tarawa, secondary targets are the AEUG supporting warships and the Gundam G-4. Your RTB point is the Agamemnon's battle group." 

Nine closed the cockpit of her mobile suit and powered up the psychommu system. "Roger that... hey Carter, what is it about that pilot anyway? Why so obsessed?" 

"Let's just say I owe a favor to an old friend." Carter closed the channel abruptly and leaned back a bit in his chair, content to watch what he was sure would be the Tarawa's final hour. _Okay Nine Murasame, let's see if you're as strong as Naomi thought you were. _

Nine's Gundam launched from the portside hangar pod, while Conner's suit launched from starboard and came up in formation next to her. Both touched fingers for a few moments and Conner spoke directly into her cockpit, "Alex's pilot was named Seven Murasame, but now she calls herself Naomi Wilson. She used to be our squad leader... we really loved her too." 

"What happened to her?" 

Conner checked his system to make sure Carter couldn't hear them, "Swear you won't tell Carter I told you?" 

"Screw Carter. Just tell me." 

Conner answered quietly regardless, "Naomi's memory came back. After that she went crazy, and Carter says she got so paranoid she even said he was the reason she had lost her memory in the first place." 

Nine raised a brow, "But everyone knows that transmuting into a newtype causes memory loss. That's the reason we're working with Carter, so he can help us..." 

"Yeah, well Naomi got hers back on her own and it made her crazy... but the thing is..." Conner paused for a long moment, then continued, "Actually... I think Naomi was right. I mean... what if Carter did something to us? What if that's why none of us can remember the past?" 

Nine broke contact at this point, but just to make sure Conner understood she nodded at him with the mobile suit and moved up into the formation ahead. _Maybe Carter IS responsible,_ she thought, realizing she had had the same suspicion long before now, _In either case, he won't give me what I want unless I cooperate with him. Once I destroy the Tarawa, I'll be able to see the world again without this damn psychommu system. _   


  
_- 2104 hours (CST) -   
_The scenery was from the inside of a Zaku, a war-torn landscape where nothing lived and nothing moved. Some tremendous blast wave had flattened this city, crushed all of the buildings to dust and blown the people away like feathers in a gale. 

He knew this place. He was standing in the ruins of Melbourne Australia, sometime in the height of summer... sometime towards the end of the war. Then a flash of light, and a string of bullets zipped past his camera. Resistance fighters scurried around in the ruins like ants, shooting up at him with small arms fire, flare guns, some even attacking his mobile suit with bows and arrows. "What the hell do they think they're doing?" He said with a chuckle, "The natural order of things, I guess. The inferior always challenge their fate." 

He began walking again, stepping over ruined buildings and debris, crushing demolished cars and buses at his feet as the yellow tracer rounds streamed around his mobile suit, glancing off his armor hopelessly. "These people need to be put in their place." He brought his machine gun to bear and aimed ahead of him as he marched, set the rifle to full auto and fired off a long burst to sweep the ruins ahead of him. 

The shells exploded against the rubble and concrete, casting the dust from them up into the air in explosive geysers. Some of the resistance fighters were tossed into the air by the blast, men women and children blown to bits by 120mm explosive rounds too big for most tank guns. A few more emerged again and fired more rounds hopelessly into his armor, and another long sweeping burst into the fields of rubble silenced the last of them before he moved on into another pack of fighters. 

His sensors screamed proximity warning from behind him. All at once the sky faded to black as if the atmosphere had vanished, the ground disappeared and suddenly the Zaku was in space. Dieter spun around quickly to face this new enemy... and seeing it brought to him a cold rush of fear. Looming before him, silhouetted against the moon was the monolithic sphere of a gigantic Labor Pod, easily ten times the size of his Zaku, with long powerful arms ending in iron claws like those of a dragon. Dieter opened fire in a sheer panic, but his shells bounced off the pod's skin without making so much as a dent. He drew his heat hawk and slashed at it, but the monstrosity lifted it's powerful claws and ripped his arm clean out of the socket with one deft movement. 

In a sudden flash, they other claw came crashing down on the Zaku's head, crushing it halfway down into the torso and then ripping it clean off. The monster grasped the Zaku in both claws and ripped a section out of the torso, then off came one leg, then the other... Dieter watched impotently as the giant before him ripped apart his mobile suit as if it were made of paper. Yet somehow, despite the overwhelming terror on his heart, Dieter heard his own voice calling out from somewhere, "Those who lack power are destined for domination! Who are you to challenge your own destiny?!" 

One last strike from the monster and the main armor plate of the Zaku was ripped away. Dieter found himself falling through space for a thousand eternities until he hit the ground; now he was lying face down on a street somewhere in old Nobel colony. He was surrounded by people... people he knew, people he recognized but had wished so hard to forget. He saw Isaac Cunningham in front of him, Robyn Cunningham with her two children alongside, he saw Emily Regan, Mya Zabi, Melissa Conner, Michiko and Takashi Izumi... they were all around him, and in the gently curving walls of the colony he could see that there were hundreds of thousands of them for miles in all directions "What are you all doing here?" Dieter stood defiantly and drew his side arm, aimed it first at Isaac Cunningham, "I killed you! You're not fit to live in the new world order! Lord Gihren said...!" 

"Gihren Zabi is dead." All of them spoke at once, millions of voices in unison. He looked up above him and there was the Labor Pod, so massive if filled the colonial sky, looming over him like a vengeful God. "This is Gihren's vision." They all said again. 

The people around him started to close in, and Dieter raised his pistol and started shooting into the crowd. He watched the bullet hit Isaac Cunningham in the chest, and watched in terror as the bullet flattened itself against his skin to fall harmlessly to the ground. He emptied a clip into the crowd as they closed in on him, closer and closer, until he could feel them breathing down his neck. He felt hands grasping him, pulling him, and spinning around he found himself face to face with the very last person he ever wanted to see... "Why are you fighting?" The crowd rushed in around him and in moments they had him, pulling at him from all sides, every one of them getting a firm grip. He felt them pulling at his arms and legs, pulling him apart... 

Zeon Zum Daikun stood there in front of him, gigantic before him as he had been when Dieter was a student. Again he stared down at him with a stone-cold glare, "Why are you fighting? It is a blessing, not a curse." Dieter's arm ripped from its socket. His knees dislocated and his legs came apart one joint at a time. Someone slashed at his other arm with some kind of bladed weapon that sliced his hand clean off his wrist. Piece by piece, they tore him apart. And in the last second before death claimed him, Dieter looked up through the nest of angry people and saw the Labor Pod, as overwhelming and fearful as it had even been, and through the half-tinted glass of its cockpit he saw the grinning face of Ryo Izumi staring back at him... 

He sat up slowly and opened his eyes, darkness in his quarters, tears streaming down his cheeks from unadulterated terror. _The dream again,_ he thought, rubbing his temples from a pounding headache, _That's the third time this month. They're happening more and more now..._ He rolled out of his bed and reached for his uniform hanging on the wall next to him, dressed himself quickly and headed for the door. "I think I could use a stiff drink." He muttered to himself, then changed his mind, "No, I just need something to do. Something to keep myself occupied..." 

From here he made beeline to the Agamemnon's mobile suit deck, intent on checking on the repairs to his Hizack. He had convinced himself that his nightmares would go away once he killed Lieutenant Izumi and finished their battle once and for all, but as the nightmares became more and more common he began to wonder if perhaps the answer to his problem lay somewhere in his past, something he had left undone and needed to repair in order for him to re-salvage his life... _Who knows?_ He thought bitterly, _I can't let that lowlife Izumi challenge me, one of the elect, as if he were some kind of... _He passed through the hatch to the mobile suit hangar and was immediately greeted with an all to unusual sight: Lieutenant Bate and Osborne were both sitting on the railing of the catwalk with a bottle of whisky in hand, somber and emotionless. Lieutenant Monsha sitting on the deck against the bulkhead across from them, sobbing angrily and punching the deck at his knees. 

Dieter stood a little taller and approached them stiffly, keeping any sign of emotion out of his voice or his face, "Lieutenant Bate," He said coldly, "Do you waste this much time mourning ALL of your fallen comrades?" 

Bate looked up at him slowly, then took a gulp of the whisky, "Not all of them. You'll be the exception." 

Dieter sighed and glared at all of them, even a half-hysterical Monsha sitting on the deck, "Death is part of war. You're soldiers, you should understand that." 

Bate took another sip of the whisky and handed it off to Osborne, "I know who you are, Cunningham." He said, staring at the Major with an icy gaze, "I know exactly what you did during the One Year War. You probably think you fit in perfectly here, but people like you..." 

"People like me?" Dieter stepped closer and leaned forward, directly in Bate's face, "I'm sorry I keep forgetting, Lieutenant, but what exactly was in that transport ship you blasted this morning?" 

For just a split second, Bate allowed Dieter to see the pain in his eyes. Bate turned away slowly and stared down at the deck. "You probably think you and I are alike, Dieter..." 

"But we ARE alike, Lieutenant Bate. We are both exceptional individuals, and therefore chosen to dominate this world. The majority of spacenoids exist to be controlled. That's the entire purpose of the Titans, after all." Dieter turned, stepped up on the railing of the catwalk and pushed off towards his Hizack to check the status of the repairs. "Don't mourn your comrade too much. His fall in battle only proves he wasn't worthy for the new world order." 

Bate and Osborne stared at him in disbelief, then traded glances between themselves and Lieutenant Monsha. "I don't know what scares me more, Monsha," Bate muttered tiredly, "The things Dieter believes in, or the fact that I almost agree with him."  


  
_- 2251 hours (CST) -   
_"Confirming, four enemy mobile suits in the front, two in the rear! The loners are too big to be normal units..." 

Captain Shiden pulled on the glove for his normal suit and checked the double-seal, "It's them alright. Launch all mobile suits and standby all main weapons. Inform the Titov we have incoming." 

Ensign Holland snapped into action on his communications board, "Roger! Bridge to Commander Wilson, you're cleared to intercept. There's two Flash Gundams inbound, so watch yourself." 

Naomi slipped into the cockpit of her Gundam and quickly powered up her main systems. "We'll handle them. Tell Marquis' unit to keep those Hizacks busy for me." Just before she closed the hatch, Brian appeared in the opening and moved inside, "Lieutenant..." 

"Please come back safely, Commander." He leaned in quickly and kissed her on the lips, then just as quickly slipped out of the cockpit on the way to the lower deck to retrieve his core booster. 

"Just for you, Brian," She said as he left, then closed the hatch and stepped the Gundam onto the catapult. She waited for the flashing yellow light to turn green, then squatted down, fired her verniers and shot into the blackness of space on the catapult. 

As soon as she was off the ship, she glanced to one side and saw the first of the Galbaldys launching next to her, this one being Lieutenant Izumi's machine as it made formation with her to intercept, "Hey Naomi," He said on her channel, "You remember our bet?" 

Naomi chuckled. "You're not gettin my panties, Izumi." 

"Well, you're not getting my instant ramen either." 

"Fine." 

"Fine..." Izumi picked up a flash in the distance, zoomed in to maximum and then grinned. "There they are." 

"That was fast... Rico, Mike, you're with me, we'll take on the lead suit. Lucy, take your team and get on the other one." 

"Roger," They all said at once, then split up into their various positions as the enemy suits came into range. 

The Titov's mobile suits were already ahead of them, exchanging fire with the Hizack squad as it came into their defensive zone. It was obvious to anyone watching that the Hizacks were nothing more than a distraction for the two monstrosities behind them, neither of which had even entered the battle yet. 

Far to the rear, standing on the deck of the freighter-turned-mobile suit carrier, Vanessa took aim with her long-range beam rifle, aimed a deflection shot at one of the Hizacks and waited... the suit stopped in space for a moment to attack one of the Hercules suits, and Vanessa's finger hit the trigger. The beam caught the suit before he knew what was happening, burning through the torso just above the cockpit and destroying it completely in just one instant. "Scratch one suit," She said coldly. 

Duncan picked out the next target, locked both GM rifles onto it and fired off a long burst, forcing the suit to try and dodge before he finally zeroed in and shot the suit full of holes. "Second one's mine." 

"I want the third..." Vanessa lined up another shot with her beam rifle and fired, but the shot missed by a narrow margin when the Hizack made a sudden move against another suit. She was about to line up another shot when a shell from a Hercules' bazooka smashed through the cockpit hatch and the suit exploded in a fireball. "So much for that... what are the Titans thinking? Attacking us with such a small..." A series of explosions lit up the sky and blinded her scopes for a few moments. When she switched back to her main camera, she saw the explosions had come from an entire squad of AEUG suits, all destroyed at once by a weapon she had not seen. "What the hell?!" 

Naomi saw them on her screen now, charging through the battle in space as if someone had flipped a switch and turned them into combat maniacs, Now they switch into combat mode, The lead suit came into view, the signature double V-fin on the head that set it apart from the others glistening in the sunlight. She watched in fascinated anxiety as the Gundam charged into the midst of the AEUG mobile suits, opened an armored plate on its chest and revealed the sparkling cone of the scattering beam cannon to all watching. Before the Hercules squad knew what was happening, the cannon flared to life, firing off a dozen beams of mega particles in a sweeping pattern that caught all four of the mobile suits at once and smashed them all to bits before any of them could even think to dodge. "Dammit! C'mon gang, let's take em down!" 

Lucy's team fired the first shots, all beam rifles streaming energy beams across space straight into the faces of the second Flash Gundam. Naomi and her two GM escorts followed up and fired at the first, and to no great surprised the mobile suit dodged their fire with the kind of speed only expected of a Gundam. After a moment, the Gundam answered back; a half-dozen small bit weapons released from compartments in the shoulders and zipped into space to meet the Tarawa's mobile suits head on. 

Mike and Rico both opened fire with head vulcans and beam guns as the bits swarmed around them, but the weapons were moving too fast and were much too small for either of them to score any hits. Rico put up his shield and blocked just as one of them fired a laser blast his way, but before he knew it he was taking fire from all directions and dancing in space in a series of insane maneuvers. "Shit, this is impossible!" 

"Calm down, Rico! Try and predict their movements!" Naomi dodged a pair of blasts from two bits, then popped open her right arm gatling and destroyed both of them as soon as they moved again. "The pilot is controlling them by impulses! You can see those impulses if you concentrate!" 

Rico stopped for a split second and watched one of the bits... a strange kind of glow, almost like a tiny star lit up on the end of each bit every time it moved. The glow appeared in the opposite direction of where it went, as if it were pushing them where they needed to go... he followed the sign, aimed ahead of one of the bits and fired his beam gun. Time seemed to move in slow motion, and the beam seemed to seek out the weapon as it moved through space before finally striking it dead center and blowing it apart. "Got it!" Rico fired twice more and destroyed two more bits, and behind him Mike caught the other three with his head vulcans, clearing the sky around them. 

Nine Murasame squinted at the enemy suits, suddenly seeing a need for caution. "These guys are good... Conner, be careful!" She launched the rest of her bits towards the enemy, but this time pressed the attack with the rest of her weapons. She waited for the first GM to turn to attack the bits, then locked on with her forearm guns and took aim. "You won't keep me from the Tarawa..." 

Something flashed across space and all six of her bits vanished... looking through space she realized all of them had been hit by some kind of enormous beam weapon, and tracing the beam to its source she spotted a core booster swooping in behind her. "Shit! This isn't working!" She spun around to the core booster and charged the scatter beam, but the booster passed her in space before she could get the shot off. As soon as she turned back again she sensed an attack from beneath her and dodged left just before Naomi's beam rifle would have sliced her in half. "That Gundam... I can feel the pressure from the pilot..." the Alex fired off a series of blasts from the beam rifle and the two GMs joined in with their own guns, forcing Nine onto the defensive avoiding their fire. "... and from all of them... pressure from the enemy..." 

Brian came around again, lining up an attack from behind the Flash Gundam with all eight of the missiles locked down under his wings. From here they had the enemy suit surrounded, but bringing it down would be a lot harder than any of them expected. "Commander, put everything you've got into him and we'll try and get a missile shot!" 

Naomi smiled. "You heard the man! Light em up!" Naomi opened fire from below in a frenzy, along with Rico and Mike from above, forcing the Flash Gundam to dodge rather than attack. Brian waited for an opportune time, then fired all eight of his missiles at an impossibly close range. 

Nine sensed the missiles as they approached, and already knew exactly the game the Feddies were playing. In this case she fired her thrusters and pushed straight up, away from Naomi and the two GMs, flying over the missiles and over the core booster, then firing off a blast from the scattering beam cannon to take care of both. The core booster managed to twist and turn to avoid the beams, but the missiles exploded in front of it, damaging the giant beam cannon under its starboard wing. _That taken care of him,_ she immediately turned back to the two GMs and fired off frenzied spread of beams from her forearm and head cannons, forcing the GMs to disperse and keep their distance. Mike's GM moved just a little too slowly, and her beam cut through it's shield and ripped one of the arms away from the torso with it. 

"Keep it together!" Naomi shouted, firing her beam rifle to get the Gundam's attention focused back on her, "Don't let up, keep the pressure on!" 

Ryo burst in on her radio with a sudden warning, "Naomi, watch your back!" 

She boosted straight up just as a concentrated blast from the other Flash Gundam would have vaporized her, then spun around just in time to dodge a barrage of beam fire from the suit's guns. "Damn... Second Squad, switch targets! Help Rico and Mike!" 

The three Galbaldys pursuing the suit broke away now to attack Nine's unit while Naomi squared up with this machine in front of her. She locked her rifle and waited for it to come closer, then fired a blast at a few hundred meters. The beam hit an I-field over the chest, and at such a close range the Flash Gundam's return fire was almost impossible to dodge. One shot came close enough to the cockpit to actually strip the paint from her hatch, but she managed to come out unscathed and turn back to the fight at hand. 

The three Galbaldys entered the fray just in time, all of them shooting at the Flash Gundam from all sides and keeping the pilot on the defensive. Nine could feel sweat running down her forehead. "Goddammit, if only I had some bits left..." She managed to lock on and fire at one of the Galbaldy's but her beam hit the shield and glanced off without penetrating it. She fired again, hoping to punch through to the mobile suit beneath, but all at once sensed a burst of hostility from behind her; one of the Galbaldys had closed in to almost point-blank range. 

Lucy didn't see where he was until he was too late, but in desperation she called out a warning, "Eric, don't! You're too close!" 

"If I hit him point blank, I can nail his radiator!" He closed the distance at full throttle and waited for the suit to start to turn, and predicting what the pilot might do next he didn't wait for a facefull of scatter beam but fired all four of his missiles straight into the torso of the Flash Gundam... then he blinked. In the time it took for the panic reflex to travel from his brain to his hands, the Flash Gundam shot out of the path of his missiles, swung around behind him and fired off a blast from the scatter beam at nearly point blank range. A six different beams burned through the Galbaldy's armor, slicing through the torso and legs, opening the fuel tanks and thruster manifolds, cutting open the fusion reactor and the cockpit compartment, finally shredding the mobile suit like a paper doll to be blown into open space by its breached fusion reactor. 

The brilliance of the explosion covered her next move: Nine aimed her shot right where she sensed one of the GMs was and fired both beam guns straight at it. Rico moved to dodge but not quickly enough; one beam struck his right leg at the hip, the other burned through the side of his head and erupted out of his thruster pack. The twin explosions knocked the suit into a spin, and Rico barely had time to throw open the hatch before a secondary explosion ripped the suit apart and tossed him into space like a wet rag. 

Nine spun to face the others and fired off another blast from the scatter beam, forcing them all to break off their attack and give her just enough of an opening to slip through to the Tarawa. "Conner, keep em busy for me!" 

"Gotcha, Nine!" He released all twelve of his bits at once, directing all of them towards two Galbaldys and the GM while he fired a few more blasts at the Alex to keep it at bay. 

Lucy and Ryo both moved to full thrusters to get out of the midst of them, giving them just enough time to check their position before they were surrounded again, "Naomi, he broke through! He's headed for the Tarawa!" The bits came up all around her again, and Lucy barely had enough time to dodge all of them and try to intercept with her own beam rifle. 

Naomi glanced into the distance as the Flash Gundam zeroed in on the carrier and growled in frustration. She turned to pursue, but then sensed an attack from behind and dodged a triple blast from its beam guns. "I don't have time to play with you right now!" She concentrated all her energy on the Gundam in front of her, scanned his mind for a moment and predicted his next move; she popped open both arm gatlings and fired, along with her head vulcans, straight into the chest housing of the Gundam. After a few moments her shells hit their mark, tearing into the scatter beam on the chest and knocking it out of action with an explosion of sparks. As the enemy pilot recovered from the hit, a burst of fire from the core booster's beam guns crossed in front of its face, giving Naomi just enough of an opening to slip away and fly back to the ship. 

The Titov's point defense guns opened fire as Nine came into range, but it wasn't enough; she knew that the fall of the Tarawa was inevitable. There were four suits ahead of her, three Hercules suits and Duncan's GM Custom, firing at her with machineguns in a vain effort to drive her off, with the former Zeon battle cruiser just beyond them. "You can't even hurt me... disappear!" Her scatter beam fired a wide pattern, blowing away two of the Hercules and forcing the other two to move out of her path. She shot past them and fired off several blasts into the hull of the Titov, punching through it's main hull and blasting out the other end in the form of geysers of flame. Secondary explosions began rippling through the main hull, knocking the cruiser into a spin as it began to tear itself apart from the inside. "Bastards... now the main course!" 

She passed the dying cruiser and zeroed in on the Tarawa, flying straight into a storm of anti-aircraft fire from its guns as she closed in. There was nothing between her and her kill... nothing would stop her from getting what she wanted. "I got you Tarawa! DIE!" Her computer showed a lock, and Nine pulled the trigger. 

Both forearm guns and the head cannon unleashed a storm of fire, sinking round after round into the Tarawa's hull. The first series of blasts cut into the portside deck, striking one of the ammo containers in below the main hangar in an explosion that pushed its way out of the side of the hull just forward of the main gun. The defense guns concentrated for just a few seconds around her, but her next attack was aimed higher: one beam hit front of the command tower, and two more hit the Tarawa's bridge... 

Naomi heard a burst of static, then the beeping codes of the automatic distress signal from the Tarawa's computer. Her blood turned to ice as she scanned ahead to confirm the status of the ship, "The Tarawa... oh God!" 

She spotted the Flash Gundam moving nearby, coming around for another attack to finish off the ship. Naomi wasn't close enough to engage effectively, but she concentrated on the pilot and read her next move, and with a quick prayer she fired her beam rifle for all it was worth. 

Nine locked her weapons onto the Tarawa's gravity block, but just before she could fire, a beam of mega particles crossed her field of vision and her left arm exploded, knocking her into a spin. She didn't even have to look to see who it was who had hit her from behind, "Damn you...!" She spun around and fired off her scatter beam, but the range was much too far and the beams dispersed harmlessly around the Gundam. Nine didn't have enough time to recharge the scatter beam, and quickly moved to dodge the Gundam's next shots as she fired back with her one good arm. "Damn pest... get out of my way!" 

Alex changed capacitors on the beam rifle as it closed and fired off another series of blasts, forcing the Flash Gundam to evade and driving it farther away from the Tarawa. At last Nine's scatter beam managed to build up an I-field, and she steadied herself in space and took the next two hits in the chest as she aimed her next shot more carefully. "Come on now..." She opened fire again and again, watching the Alex dodge her fire but watching at the same time her aim get closer to a direct hit. "C'mon, c'mon..." Naomi fired off two shots, both of them hitting the torso and bouncing of the I-field again. Nine chuckled. "It's no use, you know you can't..." the Gundam charged forward and emptied the magazine on its left arm-gatling, raking across the top of the Flash Gundam's head and immediately knocking the beam cannon out of action. 

"Aw dammit... would you just DIE already!" Nine charged the scatter beam, locked onto the Gundam and fired one concentrated blast... 

Just before she could get a shot off, she sensed an explosion of pressure from out in front of her, well past the Gundam, off in the direction of the AEUG ship she had destroyed. The beam hit the left side of her torso just below the shoulder, blasting away a section of the armor and knocking the mobile suit into a spin. It only took her a moment to stabilize, just in time to dodge another blast from the very same source, "Damn snipers..." She dodged up as another blast fired from behind the demolished cruiser, then turned away to put some distance between them, away from the Gundam and from the Tarawa. She started charging her scatter beam for another concentrated blast, but a message beamed into her brain on the psychommu interface that her left coolant unit was offline and her reactor was starting to overheat. "Shit! Conner, we have to pull back!" 

Conner's Gundam dodged over a spread of missiles from Ryo's Galbaldy, firing any weapon he had left to keep them at bay. "Roger that! Let's get the hell out of here!" He turned suddenly and boosted away from the Tarawa's suits, leaving what few bit weapons he had left to distract his enemies and keep them from following. Both him and Nine raced away from the battle zone at maximum thrust, finally joining up again for their flight back to the Dogos Gaia well out of range of the AEUG mobile suits. 

Lucy called in on a general frequency as she watched them go, "Enemy mobile suits withdrawing..." she checked the Tarawa's forces and felt a wave of anxiety wash over her, "We lost Eric and Rico." 

"What about the core booster? Is Brian okay?" Naomi asked suddenly without thinking. 

Brian answered back in another moment, "I'm pretty shot up but I'll manage." 

For a brief moment, Naomi breathed a sigh of relief... then looked over again at the Tarawa and examined the hull from the outside. 

The portside deck was belching flames from a dozen points as vernier fuel stores cooked off, and she could see several direct hits on the primary hull from the beam guns... but more than that, the entire forward section of the command tower, including the main bridge, looked as it they had been chewed off by a fire breathing giant. The forward section of the main bridge had been blown cleanly off the ship and was floating nearby with emergency crews swarming around it trying desperately to recover any officers who might have survived. "I don't believe this!" She muttered in disbelief, "There's got to be something we can..." 

"Commander Wilson!" A pair of GM Customs appeared next to her, one with a beam rifle, the other with a pair of spent machineguns in each hand. "They were only sent to slow us down! They'll launch another wave as soon as those two get back!" 

Naomi knew this perfectly well, but with the Titov reduced to a floating wreck and the Tarawa so badly damaged, she doubted there was any fight left in them for a second wave. "Where's the rest of your squad?" 

"Dead." Duncan said plainly, "There's only four suits left on the Diligent, we can put down there..." 

"No, you two go to the Tarawa and help them with the portside deck. If you can save the deck, stay in it." 

"Roger that." 

Duncan and Vanessa moved off towards the Tarawa, fires still belching from within the portside deck, while Naomi moved in towards the starboard deck with Lucy's team coming in right behind her. As soon as she landed, Naomi opened up a com link to Sergeant Amonte and gave him new orders, "Kelly, I'm going back out there! Get any hands you can spare and load Alex's chobham armor!" 

Kelly's response was as immediate as it was frantic, "Are you insane?! I need every hand I can get in damage control or we're gonna loose the ship!" 

"Just do it, Kelly! We've got three thousand people riding on this!" 

Kelly hesitated for a few moments, but watching the half-exhausted mobile suits landing in the deck and the others moving into the portside deck to put out the fires, Kelly made up his mind that they had few other options. "Alright... ammo crews, take Alex's full armor out of storage! Load him with as much weapons and ammo as he can carry! Move it, people, there's not much time!" 

* * *

Special thanks to Misha for her dazzling work with the Flash Gundam page at Newtype Alpha Productions ^_^

Flash Gundam---- 

Take a gander, will ya? ~_^


	20. Chapter 19: The Master and the Apprentic...

Caution should be exercised in the use of force. Too little force, and you will be overcome by your opponent. Too much force, and your aggression will rebound against you, multiplied three times in ferocity when your opponent retaliates.   
- Zeon Zum Daikun.  


* * *

**Chapter 19: The Master and the Apprentice**

  
_- April 28 UC 0084 -  
-2332 hours (CST) -_  
"Load one of the rifles on the waist armor! Spare packs on the shield! Don't worry about clips for the bazooka, I won't need them!" Naomi was barking orders from the cockpit as she did a scrambled systems check to bypass anything on the mobile suit that wasn't up to speck, taking for granted that Kelly could hear and keep track of every one of her commands. She felt another lurch as the chestplate of the Alpha Gundam's chobham armor, then a series of small clicks as the explosive bolts locked it down. 

"That's the last of the armor, Commander!" 

"What about the refueling status?" 

"60%! Give us five more minutes!" 

Naomi abandoned her panel and poked her head out of the cockpit, back into the chaos of the deck for just a few moments, "What's taking you so long?!" 

"What are you talking about? There's a hole in the fuel tank on your left leg! We had to patch it before we could refuel you!" 

Naomi growled and disappeared into the cockpit again, hurriedly bypassing the rest of the faulty systems and switching over to secondary. Never in her life had she ever seen a mobile suit with such a hideously makeshift repair job, but she knew the Flash Gundam's systems were in far worse shape and the ship that launched them far less prepared for an attack. If nothing else, she would have the element of surprise on her side. 

She waited for the mechanics to clear out from the mobile suit, then reached over and cradled a hyper bazooka over her right shoulder, tucking her beam rifle against a hot-welded clamp on the back of the shield. The clamps Kelly had welded to hold her beam rifle looked like a second-grader's arts and crafts project, but they would do for now. "Fuel status?" 

Kelly paused for a long moment, then looked up to the cockpit, "You're golden!" 

"I'm launching now! Clear the catapult!" 

The main hatch opened on the front of the carrier and the Gundam stepped onto the catapult tracks in preparation for launch. 

The scene in the hangar when Ryo arrived was the last thing he had expected to see, mechanics scrambling back and forth with fire-fighting equipment, using the starboard bay as a damage control hub even as Naomi's Gundam stepped up to launch again into space. It mystified him even now that the Commander was about to launch again after what they had seen from the Flash Gundams, yet it seemed to him entirely characteristic of Naomi to do something so blatantly irrational. "Kelly, I need a mobile suit!" 

Kelly turned to face him a half a second before the catapult fired and Naomi shot into space riding the flames of its verniers, the additional boost from the Full Armor's verniers offsetting the bulk of the machine. Both of them watched the mobile suit disappear into the distance before going on, "All we've got left is Brian's GM, but that's over in the portside deck." 

"Did the fire get to it?" 

Kelly shook his head. "Mostly it just got the ammo magazines, the launch bay should be fully intact." 

"Right, I'll head over and..." He started for the hatch over to the opposite bay, but all at once he stopped and turned slowly to the auxiliary stall in the back of the deck, at the mobile suit covered in a white tarp since the last time the mechanics had worked on it, "What about the Mudrock?" 

Kelly squinted at him, "What ABOUT the Mudrock?" 

Ryo stared at the mobile suit and debated it for a few long moments, then grabbed a zip-line off his belt and fired it against the far bulkhead, pulling himself in towards the covered-mobile suit's cockpit. 

Kelly followed right behind him shouting in protest, "Wait a second, you can't take it out!" 

"Why not? You repaired it, didn't you?" 

"But... well..." 

"Well what?! Alice died piloting this thing, we can't keep it off limits forever!" 

Kelly still seemed hesitant and indecisive, the stigma of the Mudrock's last battle still hanging over it as real as the sheet that covered it. It wasn't simply the jinx of their most beloved crewmember loosing her life to this machine; ever since they had brought it back there had been a strange vibe to it... as if the machine was keeping THEM away... 

Ryo slipped into the cockpit without a second thought, slipped on the psychommu interface and fastened it to his pilot suit. The mobile suit started moving even before he closed the hatch, ripping free from the sheets that covered it and stepping out of the storage area into the main hangar to find the catapult track. 

As soon as he started moving, Brian's voice exploded onto the radio exactly as Ryo expected it would, "Ryo what the hell do you think you're doing?!" 

"I'm just borrowing it, Brian." 

"Borrow nothing! You know that mobile suit..." 

"I know, this is still Alice's mobile suit... but I'm sure she'll forgive me if I borrow it just this once." 

Brian thought about it for a few moments, then took a deep breath and relented. "Contact Code 11." 

"Code 11, roger." Ryo stepped onto the catapult and closed the hatch to the mobile suit, "Kelly, are these cannons loaded?" 

"Yeah, but we don't have a beam saber for you! Take one of the newer rifles in case you need close combat!" A slot next to the catapult line raised an XBR-L85 beam rifle, fully equipped with a swingblade beam-jite/bayonet. "Izumi in Mudrock, ready to launch!" 

Brian seethed in his radio, "Give em hell, Ryo!" 

The catapult fired and the Mudrock was free of the ship for the first time in weeks, soaring into space under the power of its verniers hot on the trail of Commander Wilson's Gundam. Ryo let the shadow-world of the psychommu interface guide his senses in the right direction, and in a few moments he found himself on a parallel course with Naomi straight towards the Dogos Gaia. "Here we go Alice," He said, tapping the sides of the monitor with his fingers, "Wherever you are, I hope you can hear me... I'm gonna make sure the Titans pay for what they've done today."

******

The secondary bridge was mainly used as a fire control station in regular operations, so it was manned with nothing but the gunnery crew when Brian arrived and barked to anyone nearby, "Who's in charge?" 

All of the officers looked around at each other, stared blankly back and forth before focusing in again on him. "You are." Said the chief gunnery officer from the forward consol. 

Brian raised a brow. "Who? Me?" 

"They got the bridge crew when they attacked. Captain Shiden and Lieutenant Browning were the only survivors, but they're both in the infirmary getting a hack job from Pearson. That makes YOU captain of the Tarawa." 

Brian stopped a few moments to take it all in, finding himself suddenly in command of a half-crippled spaceship and its crew of almost three hundred people. And on top of all that, he felt the deck buck suddenly and looked past them all into the veiwports to watch Naomi's Gundam launching into space, just another thing to add to the chaos of what could at any moment become an utter disaster. "Oooookay..." He summed up all his officers training, all his experience, every episode of Star Trek he had ever seen and slid into the role as best he could, "Chief of the watch?" He said looking around. 

The chief gunnery officer stepped forward, "Lieutenant Julia Martinez." 

"You're the new X.O. Start collecting damage reports." 

"Yes sir... um... Captain..." 

Brian smiled slightly at the new honorary title; he could have been a Petty Officer and they still would have to call him 'Captain' as long as he was in charge of the ship... 

Then he sensed it, far below decks, a growing power from below as if someone's will were boiling over and surging forward in the direction of the Titans fleet. It took him all of two seconds to figure out where he had felt that before; someone had powered up the psychommu interface and it wasn't too hard to figure out who. 

He scrambled up to the auxiliary communications board and found the frequency with a flip of the switch, "Ryo, what the hell do you think you're doing?" 

"I'm just borrowing it, Brian." 

"Borrow nothing! You know that mobile suit..." 

"I know, this is still Alice's mobile suit... but I'm sure she'll forgive me if I borrow it just this once." 

Brian thought about it for a few moments, then took a deep breath and relented. He knew as well as Ryo that Alice was still out there somewhere, out of reach of them for now but only for the time being. He had been saving the Mudrock specifically for her, but in a case like this he was certain she would understand if they had a chance to ask her. "Contact Code 11." 

"Code 11, roger." 

Brian turned back to the front of the sub-bridge and found the as-yet unused helm station, very different from the one on the main bridge as it was really nothing more than a computer consol and a large monitor showing their course. "Martinez, find someone who knows how to pilot this thing." 

She thought for a few moments, then scratched her head, "Well, Captain, my first assignment was helmsman on the cruiser Savannah..." 

"You're hired. Take a seat." Brian shoved his executive officer/helmsman and navigator into the seat and leaned over her shoulder to read the data with her, "We still have engine capability, but just enough to get to Luna." 

"Yes sir. We'll have to find a landing site there to make repairs..." 

"Captain Emeril mentioned we were headed for Tycho city... plot an orbit for descent nearby there, and we can correct once we're close enough to the surface." 

Lieutenant Martinez looked up in confusion, "Why not just fly straight in?" 

"Because the Titans are watching our every move. They see us fly into Tycho city, they'll just carpet bomb it to drive us out." 

"Ah... good call, Captain." Martinez punched up the gigantic Tycho crater on the charts and plotted an orbit that would take them to the lunar surface hundreds of miles northwest of it. "If we follow this path, we'll have to double back to get to the city. We should be able to loose the Titans in the terrain." 

"Let's hope so..." Brian glanced back out through the veiwports, looking but not seeing his two comrades rush into space to counter attack the enemy on their own while his crew struggled to salvage a wounded carrier. _Let's hope we all make it there alive..._ "Signal the civilian ships to follow your projected course and tell them to head for it at top speed. At least this way the faster ships will get clear before the Titans next wave arrives."

_  
- April 29, UC 0084 -  
- 0120 hours (CST) -_  
Captain Larson knocked softly on the door, listened for a moment with no reply, then knocked a little harder and listened again. "Dr. Mass?" She said into the intercom. 

She had almost given up and was about to leave when the door unlocked and Sayla answered the door in a bath towel, "Good morning," She said with a friendly smile. "What can I help you with, Captain Larson?" 

"Well... if this is a bad time..." 

"Not at all. Come on in." Sayla stepped back from the door and Gwen stepped inside, marveling for a few moments at the accommodations of the VIP quarters. She stood nervously in the middle of the room as Sayla drifted over to the suitcase in the corner and started going through her wardrobe. "What do you think, Captain? The green or the red?" Sayla said, holding up two long-sleeved shirts. 

Gwen thought for a moment, "Uh... the red." 

"Good idea." Sayla took the shirt and ducked around the corner into the bathroom again. "So, a visit from our illustrious Captain. To what do I owe this honor?" 

Gwen blushed slightly, trying to overcome a bit of shyness, but more than anything trying to work up the courage just to say what she had to say, "Dr. Mass... um... I know who you are." 

Sayla was silent for a long moment, then emerged from the bathroom in the red shirt and a pair of khaki pants. "Do you really?" 

"Yes I do. You're the daughter of Zeon Zum Daikun, aren't you?" 

Sayla smiled and nodded slightly. "How could you tell?" 

"You look just like your brother." 

Her smile disappeared. "What about my brother?" 

Something in her voice told Gwen she was not quite on speaking terms with Casval, something she was sure she would never be able to understand. "Have you met Lieutenant Quattro Bajina yet?" 

"Should I have?" 

"Perhaps. He's one of Brex Forra's most trusted officers, and for good reason." 

"Really?" Sayla made a mental note not to talk to Brex Forra again any time soon, "What would you like to know?" 

Somehow, Gwen could tell Sayla was very gently picking her mind to speed up the pace of the conversation, "What's he doing here? Why did Char come back to the Earth Sphere? What does he want with the AEUG?" 

Sayla sighed. It was an honest enough question, but she could tell that even for a woman as old as Gwen Larson, she was strikingly idealistic. "Casval came back because he wanted to give the Earth one last chance." 

"Last chance for what?" 

"Well..." She sat down on the bed and shuffled her thoughts, trying to think of a way to explain it, "It's because the greed of the Earth Federation has caused a lot of political and social problems. History always repeats itself, and history has shown us before that colonialism always leads to war and strife. Most of the colonies today are sovereign nations, but the Federation still thinks of them as their own colonies, theirs to control and manipulate as they please. Some in the Earth Government don't even believe the colonies have any real culture other than what the Earth provides." 

Gwen nodded sadly. "The Federation doesn't understand Earthnoids. Everyone knows that, but..." 

"Whenever the colonies become too independent, the Federation Government becomes abusive. And those who are abused later become the abusers. It forms a vicious cycle that leads to nothing but death and destruction." Sayla paused for a moment, lost in her own thoughts and memories for a moment. The last time she had seen Casval, she had felt a pain in his heart she knew could never be healed; in his case, the abused was destined to become the abuser. "Char believes he can end the cycle by destroying the Earth Federation, before they can set in motion this cycle of abuse." 

For some reason, Gwen felt a strange conflict of admiration and pity. "Maybe he's right. If it hadn't been for the Federation's political bullying of Zeon, the One Year War might never have happened..." 

"He's so blinded..." Sayla blurted out suddenly, "He doesn't see that the cycle of abuse is already started. He can't stop it, even if he destroys the Federation." 

"But..." Some part of Gwen realized Sayla was right, but being part of the AEUG meant dedicating her life to a certain goal, mainly the goal of reforming the Federation and possibly ending the cycle before it could escalate. "Sayla, Char has always been a leader, and he's always lead people in the right direction. Back before the war, when he found me... he gave me a new direction, a new life, he taught me to have confidence in myself and to work for the future. He taught me that there was more to life than money and happiness. Maybe I forgot some of what he taught me back then, but if Char were to lead the AEUG..." 

Sayla stood up slowly and put her hand on Gwen's shoulder, "I'm sorry," she said gently, "But Casval is not the person you think he is." 

"It doesn't matter who I think he is, he's still a great man..." 

"True," Sayla smiled distantly, and Gwen almost thought she saw tears in her eyes, "He IS the Red Comet after all... and for the time being he may just have the right approach. The Titans and the Zabis are exactly alike, they're both abusive and utterly corrupt. I'm counting on officers like yourself to put a stop to them. For all people, not just spacenoids." 

Gwen smiled proudly, "For the daughter of Zeon Daikun, anything."

  
_-0140 hours (CST) -_  
Naomi was under full thrust when she spotted the Dogos Gaia in the distance, moving off towards a rendezvous with another group of Titans vessels not far beyond them. She could sense the pressure of the pilots she had fought only an hour before; they had probably only just arrived when she spotted the ship. "Carter..." She armed all of her weapons, starting with the hyper bazooka she would use to greet the Admiral. 

She had never seen the Dogos Gaia before; her own experiences with Project N had been from the assault carrier Wasp, but assuming this ship was designed as a mobile suit carrier/battleship, her first target was obvious. "Alright, let's get this party started..." Her hyper bazooka was loaded with high explosive anti-warship shells, but in order to use the most effectively she would have to get much closer to the ship. She was still a few minutes off from the intercept, all she had to do was decide from which angle to attack first...

******

Nine Murasame slipped calmly out of her mobile suit and drifted across the hangar to the opposite bulkhead, wondering for the umpteenth time why she was always covered in sweat when she came back for a mission. She felt tired and emotionally drained, even as she came down to the main deck and started for the hatch to her quarters. 

Ashitaka and Miranda caught up with her near the airlock hatch, apparently excited to hear the results. The new pilot, number eleven, was only a step behind them; She heard them following in the corridor behind them and suddenly she wished she could push Conner in the path of her cheering section so she could slink off to her quarters and get some sleep. "What's up, guys?" She said tiredly, turning around slowly in their general direction. 

"What's up nothing! Did you sink it or not?" 

"Sink what? The Tarawa?" 

All of them nodded, and Miranda grunted a yes. Nine sighed and turned away. "Naomi was there. She got in my way." 

The two older pilots stepped back a bit in surprise, but the newbee stared in wonder, "Who's Naomi?" She asked innocently. 

"Never mind, Uly." Miranda caught up with Nine again as she started to leave and spun her around to face her, "You listen to me, we have to kill Naomi. There is absolutely NO ROOM in this universe for traitors. So if you see Naomi in battle next time, just back off." 

Nine exploded out and shoved her away, "Back off? Excuse me?! I'm the one who's going to kill Naomi! That's my kill, NOT yours!" 

Miranda rebounded and sprung forward again, "She betrayed us Nine! We're the ones who have to settle the..." 

"I don't take orders from YOU, Miranda! If I see Alpha Gundam, I'm gonna nail the bastard, and YOU better not be in my line of fire!" 

Miranda reached for her again in rage, and the instant Nine felt her hand touch her shoulder, she sprung off the deck and launched her first, somehow managing to catch Miranda right under the chin and knocking her spinning down the corridor. "Touch me again and I'll break you in half!" 

Miranda caught her balance and rubbed her jaw, seething, "Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're blind..." 

The fight ended there; all of them sensed an enemy nearby, and apparently the radar officer sensed the same a few seconds later as the scramble alarms started screaming throughout the ship. Admiral Carter erupted over the P.A, "Enemy mobile suit approaching from starboard! Unit Six and Eleven, scramble immediately!" 

Miranda and Ulyana turned on a dime and headed straight down the corridor back to the M.S. deck. "Well that settles it, here comes Naomi now! Looks like you loose, Nine." 

She checked the pulse of the enemy pilot and then confirmed it for herself; with a kind of clumsy precision she flung herself down the corridor after them. She wasn't fast enough to catch up, flailing out blindly trying to catch one of their heels, "Dammit Miranda, this isn't fair!" 

"I don't give a shit! I've been itching for some payback ever since Naom..." All of them sensed a wave of pressure rushing towards them, but with Miranda and Uylana still floating freely towards their mobile suits it was too late for them to stop; an explosion ripped through the far bulkhead just aft of where Miranda's suit was waiting, then two more further aft and another one further forward erupting through the ceiling. The explosions were followed by secondary blasts as the fires quickly reached the fuel tanks, tossing Miranda and Uylana around the compartment like dust in a tornado. 

Even as the fire alarms blared Nine could distinctly hear other impacts elsewhere around the ship. She waited a few moments for the rumbling to die down, then called out in her sightless world, "Miranda? What happened?" She could already feel the air rushing out of the compartment and quickly sealed her normal suit, locked down the helmet and tried again on her suit radio, "Miranda?" 

The first response she got was actually from Ashitaka, "She's floating just behind you. I think she's unconscious." 

Nine couldn't tell which way she was facing now, but she knew Miranda's mobile suit was probably powered up... She concentrated for a moment and called to the machine. 

The psychommu interface was slow to respond, but after a moment it picked up her brainwave command and started to move, slowly at first but then more confidently in Nine's direction. It stepped up to where she was floating, opened its hatch for her and beeped twice to let her know where it was. It only took her a moment to find her way inside, and another moment to realize from the interface that the power to the hangar had been cut. The Alpha Gundam had done them more damage than she thought. "Here I come Naomi..."  


******

She fired her last two shells unto the underside of the ship, punching through the armor and knocking out two of the battleship's main engines with a single triumphant explosion. The ship's defense guns fired off a storm to drive her away, but avoiding their fire was child's play to her. She thought for a moment to draw a beam rifle and try to destroy the ship entirely... but then a concentrated blast of mega particles erupted out of the front of the starboard hangar pod, opening the pod up like a can of sardines to expose the terror within. 

Naomi sensed it even before she saw it; a Flash Gundam erupted from the belching flames of the starboard hangar pod and immediately opened fire wildly without any kind of direction, just hoping to get the Alpha Gundam's attention. She could tell this was the same pilot who had attacked the Tarawa before, and she could also tell the pilot was fighting differently. _Not in combat mode are we? Let's change that._ Discarding the bazooka, Naomi locked onto the battleship with one of her beam rifle and fired twice, both shots across the face of the Gundam right into the hull of the Dogos Gaia, drawing up a twin explosion from one of the forward hangars. The Flash Gundam spun around to face her and immediately Naomi felt a sudden onset of pressure. "There we go..." 

Before she could do anything else, the Flash Gundam turned towards her and charged in under full thrust, eyes blazing in a bright green fire. Naomi took the second beam rifle in hand and locked on with both, fired both in a series of short blasts. Nine rolled over her fire as it came in, but one lucky shot clipped the side of its leg and sent it spinning before it could get off an accurate shot. It stabilized after a few moments, then opened the silos on its shoulders and released six bits to attack. 

Naomi could read their movements like an open book; she fired two blasts from her rifles and destroyed two of the bits almost as they were launched, moving to avoid the rest of them even as she dodged a twin blast from Nine's beam guns. "You won't beat me that way..." They traded blasts for a few moments, each firing off double-beams of mega particles and avoiding each others fire even as they did. They began to circle in their duel, spiraling farther away from the Dogos Gaia to drag their fight into a small debris field from a shattered asteroid. 

Naomi stopped for a few moments and let Nine lock on and charge the scatter beam, and in the last moment when the beam fired she boosted straight up and out of the path. The beam missed her completely, but ended up destroying the remaining bits. "You slippery little..." She deployed six more bits, and again Naomi destroyed one of them just as it was launching and two more with her head vulcans as they got close. The other three swarmed around her and started to attack, but rather than be drawn into fighting them she kept her focus directly on Nine. 

The two of them stopped for a moment and fired off everything they had, most of Naomi's shots striking Nine's I-field and most of Nine's shots being dodged with the smallest movements. After a moment they both fired thrusters and charged towards each other; Naomi felt two small impacts as the bits lasers struck the chobham armor on her back, but didn't slow down even slightly. The distance closed from three hundred meters to nothing in seconds, and both unreleased a fury of beam weapons just as they passed. 

Nine scored three direct hits almost at the same time, blasting away the chobham armor on Naomi's left shoulder and half the torso and scorching the paint of the mobile suit underneath. "Nice move! Now try THIS!" Naomi spun around just as she passed and fired another barrage, this time catching Nine off guard with several hits, one of them against the Flash Gundam's left beam cannon. Naomi could tell the shots weren't getting through her armor, but now her enemy was minus one weapon. "It's not over yet!" She shouted, charging forward again in a beam-rifled fury.

******  


Lieutenant Izumi recognized Naomi's handiwork. The Dogos Gaia was belching flames from two of its mobile suit hangars and its engines were out of action. There would be no Titan pursuit of the Tarawa now, but he also knew the Agamemnon wasn't far off and would probably be launching mobile suits to assist at any time. 

He scanned the area with his psychommu interface, but his sensors showed no sign of Naomi anywhere in the area... but HE could sense them, battling somewhere nearby, off in a direction away from the ship. He started to home in on the pressure from the two of them when he spotted something emerge from the Dogos Gaia and recognized it immediately. "What do we have here?" Interestingly enough, it seemed to be the exact same unit that had stalled Lucy's unit when the other suit went on and attacked the Tarawa. That being the case, the suit was probably still nursing some lingering battle damage... but there was only one way to be sure of this. 

He waited for the Flash Gundam to get a good distance away from the Dogos Gaia, then started to close in on it and aimed ahead with both cannons. He saw the glimmer plain as day, the false-image he always saw when predicting an enemy's next move. The psychommu interface seemed to be amplifying the effect; so much the better. He locked his cannons right into the middle of the glimmer and started to fire, the hesitated as the image moved slightly, aimed again and fired two rounds from both cannons. 

Conner sensed the attack just before Ryo pulled the trigger and moved off in an evasive maneuver. He moved right where he was expected to and both shells scored direct hits, striking his right leg and the side of his torso, exploding under his armor. He breathed a sigh of relief that his radiators weren't damaged, then bit his lip in panic as the psychommu system sputtered and died. "Oh shit!" 

Ryo felt the change in the pilot and smiled at his good fortune. _Lucky shot... I'll finish YOU off..._ He fired his verniers and started to close in for the kill, but from his left he sensed hostility and looked over to find a squad of Hizacks approaching from the Dogos Gaia, far off now but would be in firing range in seconds. "Dammit... Naomi, where the hell are you?!"

******  


The blast from Nine's scatter cannon ripped through the asteroid Naomi was hiding behind, pulverizing it to a cloud of dust and pebbles. Without hesitation, Naomi charged through the debris and fired the last energy from her beam rifles into a concentrated point, ripping away part of the Flash Gundam's left shoulder. Nine felt her maneuverability fall dramatically as the verniers there failed, and quickly went to full thrust through the shattered asteroid to get some distance between them. 

Naomi didn't even give her an inch; following the Flash Gundam, she cut loose the chobham armor on both arms and opened both 90mm gatlings, firing a long burst from the right arm. The shells did little more than chop up debris around Nine as she fled, but once they were clear of the field, Nine spun around to face her and fired up one of her beam sabers. "Now we're talking!" Naomi drew her own beam saber and charged in at full speed, but instead of attacking she feinted in, then reversed backwards. The Flash Gundam's right arm jabbed forward in an attack, and Naomi's beam saber sliced right through it at the elbow. 

Nine fired three quick blasts from her head cannon as she backed away, chopping away the chobham armor on Naomi's torso before finally tearing through the side of the mobile suit itself just right of the cockpit. A section of Naomi's panoramic monitor split open in an explosion of sparks and part of the right side of the monitor immediately failed. "Not good enough!" She shouted in rage. 

Flash Gundam backed away more and charged a blast from its scatter beam. Naomi reacted before Nine could fire; she locked on with both arm gatlings and head vulcans and held down the trigger. Nine fired the scatter beam even as she tried to dodge, but the combined burst from the Alex's machineguns raked across the opening of the scatter cannon and the system immediately lost power. At full thrust, Nine tried to avoid the storm of shells bombarding her, but with the sheer volume of firepower she could still feel and hear dozens of rounds hitting her armor, some of them even punching through to her primary systems. 

She felt the barrage let up and turned to face Naomi again, but as soon as she did the Gundam was directly in front of her, her beam saber in the middle of a downswing. By some miracle, Nine managed to draw her other beam saber in time to block, then powered forward a bit and countered with an attack of her own. Beam sabers locked here for a few moments, power against power, and for the first time the two pilots were face to face. "Alpha Gundam... what a pest!" She boosted power to her beam saber from her own reactors and fired her verniers, effectively driving the Gundam back across space. Naomi disengaged for a moment, stopped in space before her... and drew the other beam saber in the opposite hand. Before Nine could attack again, she activated the second saber and locked the hilt of it against the first, connecting the two in a double-sided beam saber. 

Nine raised a brow. "That's a neat trick..." She charged forward again with her beam saber blazing, but one strike from Naomi's saber knocked her back, saber and all, as if she had just been slapped by a giant. 

"This ends now!" Naomi went on the offensive, spinning the double-saber in one hand as she closed in to stab straight in at the Flash Gundam's cockpit. Nine just managed to roll out of the way of it, then brought her own saber to block as Naomi pivoted and jabbed with the opposite end. They locked for half a second, then Naomi came over the top with a slash straight down across the chest of the Flash Gundam leaving a deep gash straight through the armor. 

Nine backed away for just a moment, then boosted forward into Naomi's face and struck low; Naomi blocked with one end of the saber, but Nine rebounded and sliced across Alex's chest just above the cockpit. Both moved the same way for their next attack, locking sabers again in space and driving against each other. With Flash Gundam's greater strength Naomi had to hold the saber with both hands, driving with all the power the mobile suit could generate. After a moment, even their wills collided, and their spirits crashed head-on into each other. "AEUG bastards! I'll burn you all!" 

The very same instant Naomi recognized her voice was the same instant her beam saber failed. Nine moved before she could power it up again, slicing clean through her left arm and then cutting across the lower torso, flashing through Naomi's cockpit just short of the linear seat. The monitor itself went completely black, but through the slit left by the beam saber Naomi could see the Flash Gundam whirl around in space and kick the her square in the chest, sending the suit tumbling before finally crashing against a nearby hunk of rock. 

Nine came down on the Alex in a bodyslam-like maneuver, crashing into the Alex and driving it a few meters into the rock face as she reactivated her beam saber to finish it off, "I've got you!" 

Naomi watched the Flash Gundam raise the beam saber to stab into the cockpit, but the voice of the enemy was so familiar she shouted out mindlessly, "ALICE!" 

With the utterance of one single word, Nine's mind suddenly went blank. A wave of confusion overwhelmed her, emotions she couldn't identify or understand, and suddenly the strange feeling that something from the Alpha Gundam had just reached into the middle of her chest and squeezed her heart. She stared perplexed for a few long moments, indecisive until at last she muttered to herself, "Was... was that... is that my name?" 

Naomi felt a surge of pressure from behind the Flash Gundam, then Ryo's voice exploded in her head, _Naomi, get out of there now! _

She fired all of her thrusters at full power and the Gundam burst away from the Flash Gundam just as a massed bombardment of 300mm shells exploded against the mobile suit's armor. Nine looked up just as the Mudrock Gundam flew overhead; still in a haze of half remembrances, she realized there was something familiar about that mobile suit, "Isn't that my...?" As quickly as the memory flash had come, it just as quickly disappeared, leaving her with only the controlling impulses of the psychommu system forcing her back into combat mode. 

The Mudrock grabbed Alex by the hand as is passed, directing both in the right direction for the flight back towards the Tarawa. "Commander, you're in horrible shape! Head back to the ship, I'll catch up!" 

"Roger," Naomi used her control panel to plot the course and flew off in the direction of the carrier, while Ryo turned his back to her, flying backwards to stall the others. Through the slit of Naomi's cockpit she could see the drifting wreckage of four Hizacks in her path, "Heh... maybe I don't give Izumi enough credit..." 

Nine fired off a few blasts from her head cannon at the Mudrock as she charged him, but Ryo sidestepped the shots easily and let her approach; as soon as she was close enough she slashed down on him with her beam saber, and Ryo immediately switched on the beam-jite and caught the saber. "Don't make me hurt you, Alice!" 

"Stop calling me that! That's not my name!" She shouted in rage, driving the saber down harder into the jite. 

Ryo grinned, and with one quick movement he ripped the saber out of her hands and fired both cannons straight into the Flash Gundam's chest, hitting the already weakened armor and splitting the mobile suit wide open. He watched with satisfaction as the pilot sprang from the cockpit as the mobile suit tumbled in space, but before he could reach out and grab her he sensed a half-dozen bits come up around him and open fire. 

Looking back, he saw them at last; two other Flash Gundams supporting the one he had damaged before, all moving in to attack with a mechanized fury. "Dammit... so close..." He turned in the direction of the Tarawa and started to retreat, dodging enemy beam cannons and bit attacks all the way through. He could tell the two mobile suits were trying to slow him down so they could catch up, so he decided to give them a perfect reason not to follow him; he waited for an opening, dodged a few blasts from their beam cannons and locked on again to Conner's suit, lingering just behind them in the formation, "Piece a cake..." He fired both cannons and his beam rifle, round after round, in one massive barrage to cut down the damaged Flash Gundam. The shells exploded in his armor and crushed entire sections of the mobile suit, the beams sliced through it from end to end and set its insides ablaze. The mobile suit started tumbling in space as the pilot sprung the hatch open... 

The moment Conner's Gundam exploded, all three of the Titans newtypes froze. A wave of energy surged through all of them, in space and even on the ship, all of them sensing the confusion of emotions that accompanied the death of their comrade. Even Ryo could sense it, but unlike the others he wasn't about to stop and waste time here. He turned back to the Tarawa and rushed away at maximum thrust, following on Naomi's tail all the way back to the ship. 

As soon as he caught up with Naomi's mobile suit, he set his hand against her armor and spoke directly via skin-talk, "You okay, Commander?"

Naomi was silent for a few long moments, her head still grappling with the information she had just received. "Ryo, it was Alice..." She said softly, "Alice was the one, she was piloting the mobile suit that..."

"Yes, I know." He checked his course and found the Tarawa was right where it should be, still shepherding the civilian convoy to Tycho city and waiting for the Titans counter attack that would not be coming. "We'll get her back, Naomi. I promise."

"You promise?"

"I promise. We'll make those Titan bastards hurt for this." Naomi was still uneasy, but decided to try and relax a bit in her cockpit for the rest of the flight back to the ship. Sensing her emotions, Ryo added, "And don't forget our bet, Naomi. Don't get your panties stapled to the deck."

Naomi smiled slightly, then started to chuckle. "Er, um... yeah." 


	21. Chapter 20: Boundaries

_Silence for the ordinary people is with the tongue, silence for the mystic is with the heart, and silence for the newtype is subduing the stray thoughts that come from their innermost beings.  
- Zeon Zum Daikun_  


* * *

**Chapter 20: Boundaries**

_  
- April 30, UC 0084 -  
- 1940 hours (CST) -_  
The shuddering in the deck increased slightly as the ship passed through the massive airlock to Tycho City's space port, but a quick glance at the engineering panel on the side of the bridge reassured him. Minovksy power had been fluctuating ever since the ship first arrived on the moon, and with the almost 30 hour wait to load the last of the civilian ships into the port the limping Tarawa seemed eager to get to its resting place.

As soon as the Tarawa was fully inside, Naomi and Ryo glanced over the heads of the two helmsman at their stations and counted the number of ships waiting to greet them, "Those look like Federation vessels," Ryo muttered, a tiny note of anxiety slipping into his voice. "The Challenger and the Bounty."

Naomi nodded in agreement. "Captain Emeril did say the AEUG was sending a few ships to support... I'm just curious as to how they got their hands on a pair of brand-new cruisers?"

"Probably the same way they got their hands on the Tarawa." He waited for the gentle lurch as the Tarawa's landing pads touched the ground, then stood up from his chair and walked around to the rear of the sub bridge. "It's time we gave Captain Shiden a status report."

Naomi glanced back with a worried expression. "He's still in a coma, Brian. Give it a rest."

"If he wakes up, he'll want to know the condition of his ship. We should at least..."

Ryo jumped in with a word to slice the air, "This is your ship now, Brian. You're in command until the Captain recovers, and Pearson says that could be a VERY long time."

"Why me?" He grumbled, annoyed.

Ryo and Naomi walked across the sub-bridge to join him, both patting him on the back in a friendly expression. "Why not?" Ryo said with a grin, "Can you think of anyone more suitable?"

"Sure I can. Just gimme a minute..."

Naomi put her hands on his shoulders and started to shove, pushing him through the hatch in the back of the room and down the half-ruined corridor to the docking port further aft. "Now come on. The AEUG has a welcoming committee and everything. We can check on the Captain after all the formalities are finished." They stopped at the airlock and waited for the gangway arm to extend fully to the ship.

"Yeah, but..."

Naomi leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, at once silencing any complaints. "Be patient," she said gently, then stood at attention as the gangway arm locked into place.

Ryo chuckled. "You're a fine one to talk about patience, Naomi..."

Without even changing her posture, Naomi's fist popped out from her side and thumped him on the chest, immediately knocking the wind out of him before returning to her side to stand at attention again. Ryo staggered for a moment, coughed, then straightened up and stood back at attention. In another moment, they heard footsteps behind them; Lucy and Vanessa stepped up from the rear and stood at attention just behind them. 

Naomi glanced back quickly and whispered, "Where's your brother?"

"He said he'd be late." Vanessa whispered, directing Naomi's attention back to the airlock as the pressure finally equalized.

The hatch finally opened before them, and the five Tarawa officers now stood face-to-face with a half dozen AEUG crewmen, some in Federation uniforms, some in the light green and white AEUG standard colors. The highest ranking officer in the group stepped aboard the ship first, and as soon as her foot touched the Tarawa's deck she stood at attention and saluted. "Commander Gwen Larson, EFS Challenger."

At the sight of her, Naomi's heart stopped beating for a full five seconds, then redoubled again in a mounting rage. _Oh great. What's SHE doing here?_

Brian saluted back. "Lieutenant Commander Brian Cunningham, acting Captain of the Tarawa. Thank you for your support, Commander."

Larson dropped the salute, looked over the five of them with a questioning eye. All of them looked tired, their uniforms ragged, still bearing brown stains from smoke or ash, and all but one of them had cuts and bruises on their faces. All but one... "Commander Wilson, I presume." She said, trying her best to sound friendly.

"Presume nothing. You know damn well who I am."

Everyone in the greeting parties from both groups locked their eyes onto them now; one didn't have to be a newtype to sense the waves of tension radiating from both of them.

"I know how you feel about this, but I have orders to support the Tarawa in operations once your repairs are completed. We need to work together on this..."

Naomi's voice turned to acid. "I never forget, Gwen. You betrayed me once, you'll do it again. I'll be keeping an eye on you."

In an effort to avert the impending battle, Brian cleared his throat loudly and brought Gwen's attention back his way, "I was under the impression we would be escorted to Sweetwater as soon as the repairs were finished?"

Gwen sighed. "A lot's changed in the last 24-hours. There's been a lot of anti-Earth political activity and the Federation is starting to crack down. I'll give you details later, but there's some trade issues in Side 2 and the AEUG is trying to resolve the situation."

"I see... so we'll be going back into combat as soon as we're repaired?"

"Maybe not. Our intelligence committee wants to interview your officers and check your gun cameras for data, then we'll know for sure. For now, you all should try to enjoy a bit of shore leave while we work on repairing your ship."

"Fair enough." Brian looked past her at the other officers lined up in the gangway behind her... finally noticing that one additional person was standing behind them dressed in civilian clothing. He recognized her immediately, and from he expression he could tell she recognized him. "I'll be damned! If that isn't little Sayla Mass all grown up!"

"That's Dr. Mass, now." She pushed her way through the officers and grinned at him. She looked him over for a few moments, then grinned wider, "And I'm impressed! I didn't think you would get that tall!"

"I told you I wouldn't always be short."

She didn't bother looking around for Alice, knowing of the girl's fate from the Titov's last report, but she did look over the others just long enough to see that they had been through quite an ordeal in the past few days. "There is much to discuss now," She said, turning back to the gangway and starting for the spaceport. "If you'll all please follow me, I'll clear everything up for you."

The AEUG officers all turned and followed her. Gwen shot one final glance at Naomi, then turned and joined the others while the Tarawa crewmen joined them.

Naomi stayed behind for a moment, debating with herself whether or not to participate in this, until the moment Ryo came up next to her and whispered in her ear, "What's with you, Commander? Personal grudge?"

"I don't expect you to understand this. Brian maybe, but not you."

"Try me."

"Forget it."

"Why not?"

"You're too normal. You couldn't possibly understand this." She pushed him away with a swat of her arm and followed the others down the gangway to the space port beyond.

_- May 2, UC 0084 -  
- 0720 hours (CST) -_  
It was times like this that gave Admiral Carter doubts about the validity of his new weapons program. Such a simple operation, not even as large or as dangerous as the three his pilots had accomplished with such ease, and yet he had come away from the battle with six dead mobile suits and three of his Flash Gundams destroyed. Conor's death was something he felt as a monetary loss more than anything; it would take weeks, perhaps even months to find and train another pilot to match his abilities.

And now the grim expressions of the remaining pilots, lined up shoulder to shoulder in his office, clearly no more pleased with the situation than he was. "I know what you're thinking," He said to all of them, not rising out of his chair, "But sometimes it happens like this. Those AEUG terrorists are more resourceful than we would have expected."

"And who gets the blame for this, Carter?" Miranda hissed, trying her hardest not to speak out of line, "How could an enemy mobile suit just slip in past our defenses completely unmolested?"

Carter stared at her for a moment, then stood up slowly and towered over them, "I think the real question is why you were unable to resolve the situation? We had four mobile suits against their two."

All of them hesitated for a moment, glancing around to see if anyone had an answer. Ultimately, their final gaze came to rest on the Lieutenant Nine; she sensed their attention focus on her, and immediately her blood started to heat up. "Conor launched into battle in a damaged mobile suit. He paid for that mistake with his life. Naomi Wilson is a tricky pilot, but she's still no match for me."

"And yet you failed to defeat her. Why is that?"

Nine thought for a moment, then glared in his direction, "Flash Gundam is fast, but it's much too heavy for close combat. There's no way I can beat Alpha Gundam with such a useless machine."

Carter raised a brow, noting how a weapon the pilot had used to destroy dozens of mobile suits and warships was suddenly considered 'useless.' Somehow it inspired him with even greater confidence. "So you want to use Lucifer, is that it?"

"I'll accept nothing less, sir."

Carter smiled, but Miranda almost bolted forward, slamming her fist on his desk, "You're gonna let HER pilot Lucifer? That's bullshit! You KNOW how much the rest of us have been waiting for a chance to kill Seven..."

"And you will have that chance, Miranda. The Agamemnon's group has just arrived in port here conduct their own repairs, and then they will support us in hunting the Tarawa."

"But...!"

"Agamemnon's pilots will be enough for their support troops, but only the five of you together will have the strength to defeat the Tarawa. The only way to defeat our enemies is to completely overwhelm them."

Ashitaka, normally silent, spoke up for the first time today, "What's so special about them anyway? Why do we need all this just to hunt down a single enemy warship, even IF Naomi's on board?"

"For one thing, it's no longer a single vessel. Tarawa's linked up with some AEUG militants, which means they're probably supported by as a small regiment of ships."

"Even so... why is this mission so important anyway?"

Carter could understand his confusion. He took a slow breath and answered, not just for him but for all five of them, "Because if we allow spacenoids to militarize again, it will be a disaster like nothing you can imagine. Federation security will be jeopardized like never before, society as we know it will be called into question. So far, the only military engagements with the AEUG have been by proxy, sending mercenaries or supporting our enemies against us. But now they've taken the next step, by harboring renegades and traitors to the Federation. And then what? They may begin to resist the Titans in open conflict, with their own fleets and guerilla bases. They may build new weapons, launch propaganda, start to organize the colonies against Earth, they may even insight a second One Year War. If we allow the seeds of rebellion to take root, then Operation Stardust will be just the tip of the iceberg."

Nine looked up suddenly, "Then when we find the Tarawa, we'll also destroy those who aided them? All of the militants and the rebels?"

Carter chuckled. "I don't plan on holding back that much. You're going to annihilate the Tarawa, it's supporters, and every living thing within 500 miles of it. No one who has seen the Tarawa will ever live to tell about it, but the colonies will learn to shun the AEUG or suffer the same fate."

The other four pilots gave of grunts of approval, but Nine's heart started beating faster, "But Carter, you can't do that! You'll just kill thousands of people for no reason at all!"

"But it WILL have a reason," Uylana jumped in, "It'll set an example to the spacenoids. They'll see that anyone who associates with AEUG will be slaughtered, no questions asked. They wouldn't dare harbor anti-Earth rebels once we show them the price they'll pay."

Nine stood stiff for a moment, then sagged and stared at her feet. "That's not right. We have to destroy our enemies, not make new ones."

"We will have no enemies as long as the spacenoids understand that they cannot oppose us. Force is the only language these people understand." Carter could tell Nine still wasn't buying into it, and somewhere in the back of his mind he didn't blame her. But her dissent was something that, as always, annoyed him, "If you disapprove, Miranda can pilot Lucifer in your place."

Now she looked up again, the fire back in her eyes much to Carter's great pleasure. "I'll destroy the Tarawa and anything else that gets in my way. If you wanna wipe out a bunch of civilians like a two-bit Zabi, you leave me the hell out of it." She turned slowly for the door, followed the wall for a few feet until she had her way out.

Once she was out of earshot, Carter regarded the remaining for pilots and looked at each of them in the eye, "We don't know where the Tarawa's gone to, but drawing them out won't be too difficult. For now, all of you should get some rest and enjoy yourselves. We'll be in port for a few days while we conduct repairs and replace the mobile suit teams."

All four of them gave him a rather sloppy salute, then turned for the same door Nine had used and slunk away towards their respective business. Carter waited until the door had closed behind them, then opened a secure line to the Agamemnon, just now entering port at the other side of the colony. Admiral Dyson's face appeared on the monitor, a slight smirk emerging from his lumpy features and greasy hair. "I hear you had some trouble with the Tarawa. Lost one of your special pilots did you?"

Carter was not amused. "Your friend Naomi is very clever when she wants to be."

"Tell me about it. I suppose you'll be asking our support next time she pops up?"

Carter nodded. "With all the political upheaval in Side 2, it's likely they'll resurface somewhere nearby for a demonstration."

"Then we should inspire them to take a more active role in the situation."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

Dyson winked on the monitor, "Leave that to me. I'll contact Colonel Bosque at Green Noa-II and get his approval first."

"Approval for what?" Carter said, more curious than ever.

"You'll see." He reached for a control panel somewhere off screen and added, "And you won't be disappointed," With a flick of his finger he closed the channel again, leaving Carter to wonder.

  
_- 0950 hours (CST) -_  
His eyelids felt sticky and crusted over, and it took a surprising amount of effort just to open them. The right one first, then the left, and even as he did he found that even the dim light above his bed was intolerably bright; he closed his eyes again and moaned, "If this isn't the Drake Hotel in Dakar, I'm going back to sleep." He said in a raspy, pained voice. Brian put his hand on the Captain's shoulder, and immediately he opened his eyes again and squinted at him. "You look like hell, Lieutenant." 

"Good to see you too, Sir." Brian pulled a chair next to the Captain's bed and turned down the light another level. "They say you'll be hypersensitive for a few days. It's a symptom of decompression sickness."

The Captain looked at him in confusion. "I don't feel all that bad though."

Brian shrugged. "That's because you're paralyzed."

The Captain tested Brian's statement and after a moment discovered he was unable to feel or move any part of his body below about mid-chest. "What's the good news?" He said, his voice croaking in dryness.

"It's not permanent."

Shiden smiled. "Oh, grand... But I meant the Tarawa. What's our condition?"

Brian sighed and compiled his mental damage report one last time. "It's bad, sir. Fifty-three dead, forty wounded, sixteen unaccounted for. Portside MS deck is still intact, but needs some extensive repairs. The gravity block is also damaged, along with the Minovsky lift system."

The Captain could sense by now the part Brian had been avoiding. "And the bridge?"

"Destroyed, sir. Don't you remember?"

"What about the senior officers? How many of others made it?"

Brian's face saddened, his eyes darkening a shade. "Only you and Garcia, and she's still in rehab. None of the others..."

The Captain was silent for a few moments, a mask of emptiness like chiseled marble covering his face. In his eyes Brian could see the wave of emotions at the news, but beyond that the Captain showed no signs of emotion whatsoever. "You're telling me half the crew is out of action, along with the entire command staff?"

"Yes sir. It's not so bad now, we managed to put in to a friendly port."

"I gathered as much. You wouldn't be standing here talking to me if we hadn't." The Captain tried to sit up, but lacking sufficient muscle control he settled for a momentary lifting of his head to examine his surroundings. The infirmary seemed surprisingly devoid of patience at this point, something that gave him an indication of the passing of time. "How long have we been in port?"

"Eight days, sir."

If his legs had worked he would have leapt out of the bed and tackled him. "And you left me here sleeping while my ship was in such a condition?"

Brian shrugged. "You were in a coma, sir. I figured you could use the rest."

The Captain started another protest, then fell silent. "Well, we're still alive, so I guess the ship is in good hands."

"Yes Sir. Ryo and Naomi sortied right after they hit us and knocked out the enemy pursuit. Because of them, we were able to make it all the way back to Luna, along with the civilian convoy."

Shiden grinned. "That may be, but that's not what I meant."

"Sir?"

He patted himself for a few moments, realizing for the first time the absence of his uniform. Squinting through the glare of the lights he located his jacket, folded across the chair on the other side of his desk. "Hand me that, will you?" He said, nodding towards the jacket. Brian obliged him, walking around the bed for the jacket and holding it up for him just within arms reach. The Captain tugged at the collars for a moment, then gestured for Brian to put it back on the chair. "Now this might just be the morphine talking," He gestured for Brian to lean closer, "But this ship needs a Captain and I'm in no condition..."

"Captain, you're not going to...!" Two quick movements of his bandaged hands and Shiden released him. Brian looked at the rank insignia on his collar for just a moment, then frowned. "You're serious aren't you?"

"Stop whining. You've been drafted, Lieutenant... er, Captain Anderson."

Brian shifted his weight awkwardly for a moment, then sighed. "Sir, what about Naomi or Lucy? Or better yet, Commander Martinez has more command experience..."

Captain Shiden sat up as much as he could, adjusting the recline of the bed to support him. "Brian, Lucy and Naomi are the two of most formidable pilots this side of Mars. It's in their blood, it comes natural to them, and as a matter of fact it's about the only thing they do well. Haven't you ever wondered why the highest ranking pilot on this ship is a barely literate, 17-year-old ex-refugee??"

In truth he had always found it unusual, but had never thought deeply about it until this moment. "I see your point, sir... but that still doesn't explain why you chose me."

Shiden grinned. "That should be obvious, Brian. You're a fine officer, in fact your discipline and training as an officer of the line far surpass your piloting ability."

Brian read between the lines. "But... I'm a lot better than Mike or Rico..."

"Certainly. But I wouldn't trust either of them with command of this ship. And since we've joined forces with the AEUG on what I assume to be a formal basis, we'll always have plenty of mobile suit pilots."

Brian glanced at the badge on his collar again and chewed his lip anxiously. "I don't know, sir. I haven't even been through OCS, how in the world am I supposed to take command of a battleship?"

Captain Shiden smiled and rolled back over on his side. "Trust your instincts. As for me, my legs hurt, and I'm going back to sleep if you don't mind."

_Is it me, or has the Captain finally gone senile from all this?_ "You have any pointers, sir? Anything that might help me out?"

Shiden was silent for a moment, then rolled back over with a somber expression, "Just one thing," He said, "As far as this crew is concerned, you know everything there is to know in about tactics and maneuvers. But any subject not directly related to the ships standard operations, just repeat the Captain's montra: Don't ask me, I only work here."

"Uh... right, Captain. I'll remember that." Brian nodded in understanding, then turned and left the infirmary in hopes of scrounging up a satisfying drink. _Maybe I should take command after all. Captain Shiden seems really out of it._

  
_- May 14, UC 0084 -  
- 2241 hours (CST) -_  
Lieutenant Gardner had a full weapons lock, but the range to the target was much too far now. Sweat was starting to collect in his faceplate, but the enemy pilot didn't seem in the least bit phased by the dizzying array of maneuvers he had inflicted on both of them. "Stay with em, Sully!" He shouted to his wingman. 

"They're toying with us!"

"Stay with him anyway! Let's see if we can't nail him before he runs for it!"

Sullivan thought for half a second, reversing his turn to match the mobile suit in the distance. The enemy fired a long burst from his machinegun as he came around, then turned and put some distance between them again. "Right... moving like that he's gotta be burnin fuel like crazy."

Gardner split to one side and fired off a long burst from his GM rifle, crossing over the head of the enemy suit, but from off to one side a second unit he hadn't noticed before emerged from behind one of the rocks and fired off a single rocket from its own heavy machinegun. Gardner had just enough time to dodge out of the line of fire, but Sullivan reacted too slowly and caught most of the burst in his armor. He felt a few shells ripping through the lower waist armor before one lucky round pieced a fuel tank and his right leg exploded.

"Get outa there, Sully!" Gardner had only time for the one warning as he returned fire with his machinegun. The enemy suit let off a token burst in reply, then darted back behind the rock from whence it came.

Sullivan checked his computer readouts, then sighed in relief. "It's not as bad as it looks. I'm still in this fight..."

A garbled signal crackled through the Minovsky particle interference on their channel and Captain Moran's angelic voice beaconed to them from the bridge of their cruiser, "Sedona to all patrol units, we have a civilian transport attempting to run the blockade. Regroup at the following coordinates immediately."

Lieutenant Gardner fired a short burst from his machinegun as a parting shot before turning back to rejoin the ship. "Damn them, they're only decoys."

"Naval blockade, huh? Whose brilliant idea was that?"

Gardner sighed. "Probably some tree-hugging bureaucrat who's never been in space before. They only sent a dozen ships to cut off the commercial lines of Side 2. On all the charts, the area we have to cover is about 650 kilometers across..."

"Except space is three dimensional. That's almost four-thousand kilometers square. They might as well ask one ship to patrol an area the size of Texas."

A tiny flash of light appeared ahead of them, then two more behind, both of them the lights if verniers from enemy mobile suits closing in on them. "Who the hell is building those things?" Gardner said anxiously.

"They're very cheap machines. Who ISN'T building them?"

"Yeah, really." 

Up ahead, their sensors registered the heat signatures of a heavy transport's engines blazing, the Sedona's main engines only a few hundred kilometers behind it. Obviously, this one transport was well on its way through the blockade line before their sensors had spotted it. Garnder's computer picked up something else unusual off to their right. "Looks like four more of em coming out of the debris field."

Sullivan growled. "More decoys."

"Yeah, but we still can't turn our backs to them." Gardner maneuvered to face the new incoming enemies, and as soon as they came into range all four of them opened fire in a concentrated pattern. He could tell they were primarily aiming for Sully's machine, hoping to pick off the gimped one so they could gang up on the other more effectively, but it also meant that their attention would be divided at exactly the wrong moment. "Sully, when I tell you, break down for two seconds and then charge full-forward. We'll try and hi-low them."

"Copy that..." Sully moved into formation alongside as they closed in, both dodging another massed burst of rifle and machinegun fire from the four Hercules. As soon as they were closed, Gardner gave a whistle and both of the mobile suits fired reverse thrusters, cutting their velocity down to nothing. All four of the Hercules opened fire as soon as they had an angle, and in the same instant Sullivan's mobile suit charged forward on full thrust while Gardner rolled out and started to circle. Sullivan opened fire with his machinegun and both head vulcans to draw all of their attention while Gardner locked on at his leisure, waited for the right moment, and squeezed off a burst.

A hail of shells ripped into the torso of the first mobile suit, shredding its innards like so much meat before the fuel tanks ruptured and the mobile suit died in flames. Gardner locked onto another unit and fired, but the enemy suit dodged the burst directly into the path of Sullivan's beam saber. "Two down," He reported, backing away to get some distance between the other two.

Gardner started to line up an attack on a third suit, but out of the corner of his eye he caught the flash of an explosion and a burst of machinegun fire glistening in the distance. It took only a sideways glance to know for sure. The cruiser had been hit by a large bazooka round, a column of flame jetting out from its starboard side just to below of the main gun. "Damn! Sedona's taking fire" 

"You pull back to support! I'll cover you!"

"Don't be long, Sully." Gardner turned and rushed back to the ship at full thrust, forcing himself not to look back at what he feared could be a very grisly fate for his damaged comrade. Yet the closer he got to the Sedona, the more he worried for his own safety; the ship had taken a direct hit from an anti-warship round, with three mobile suits buzzing around it avoiding the anti-aircraft fire, plinking at it with rifles. After what seemed like a thousand lifetimes the ship was finally close enough to fire; he started to wish he had a full-sized beam rifle as he had back during the war. "Sit tight, Sedona, I'll pull em off ya!"

He locked onto the first mobile suit at a truly impossible range, but held his fire until he was sure he was close enough. "C'mon... c'mon..." The suit came around the bow of the ship and rose up a dozen meters, took aim with its rifle directly into the Sedona's bridge, stopping for just an instant to make sure its shot would not miss. 

"Gotcha!" Gardner let off the last rounds from his magazine just before the suit could fire, tearing it to pieces on the spot. "Who's next? C'mon!" He locked onto the next one and changed magazines, but this time he was never given a chance to fire.

A bright crimson beam of energy lanced out from the distance, crossing directly over the Sedon's bridge before slicing through the torso of the lead Hercules, destroying the machine in a fraction of an instant. Two more shots burst out from the darkness, but the remaining Hercules unit was already on the run before the blasts could get near it. The three units engaging Sullivan broke off as well, as did the other decoy units fighting the Sedona's second patrol team on the other side of the debris field.

Gardner turned to the source of it and pulled forward his sniper scope, zooming to maximum resolution to get a better look at his new allies. As soon as he did, his eyes narrowed to slits. "Titans. That's just perfect..." 

The pilot signaled him as he came into communications range, and Gardner held his tongue for the sake of what he assumed would be a very long joint operation. "This is Commander Alfa A. Bate of the Titans 04th mobile suit team. Titans forces are standing by to help enforce the embargo. Be advised, you are now under the direct authority of Admiral Juan Dyson until further notice." The GM Quell zipped past the ship without so much as a friendly wave, and the half-dozen warship fleet it had been riding point for seemed to be exhibiting similar behavior.

Lieutenant Gardner had never imagined that such a meaningless and petty operation like the Side 2 embargo would expand into such a chaos, but with the arrival of the Titans forces it stood to reason that something more was going on than simple reinforcement. "Hey Sully," He said, switching over to a secure line, "If the Titans are here, does that mean these mobile suits are AEUG?"

Sullivan thought about it for a long moment, but decided not to form an opinion yet. "Let me put it this way, Lieutenant," He said, a grin spreading on his face, "If the AEUG wasn't here before, you can bet your ass they will be soon now that the Titans are here."

  
_- May 15, UC 0084 -  
- 0631 hours (CST) -_  
Ryo hit the ground and rolled off his shoulder, rebound to his feet and surprised her as she lunged in again, catching her arm at the elbow and sending her flying in the very same shoulder-throw maneuver. Naomi hit the matt with a dull thud, unable to roll, with Ryo landing on top of her and pinning her down for the time being, "Pink or blue?" He said, catching his breath. 

Naomi caught her breath for a moment, then shoved him back. "No!"

"Lace? Strings?"

"I said no!" She shoved him back again, kipped to her feet at the same time he did, immediately locking arms with him again and grappling for position.

"C'mon, just gimme a clue!"

She grappled with him for another moment, then shoved him away and started to circle again. "What's the first number of your doorcode?"

"I asked you first, you answer first. Now what color are your panties?"

She backpedaled a few feet to give herself some distance, knowing and not caring he could predict what she was about to do. "I'll tell you if you beat me!" She planted both feet and took off towards him in a sprint, bounding off the matt at the last moment and leaping into the air in a flying kick.

Ryo caught her by her ankle and wrist, swinging her downwards to slam her down on the matt... and at the last moment she tucked to the side and rolled over, planting her feet on the matt behind him and flinging him into the air even as he tried to throw her. In the low gravity he ended up tumbling almost twelve feet into the air, and catching her balance Naomi sprinted across the matt for a finale, "You're such an asshole!" She sprang off the matt just short of him and leapt into the air to intercept him, curling up one leg and snapping off a spinning heal-kick into his gut, sending Ryo tumbling across the room to crash against the far wall next to the door, bouncing off and crashing to the ground.

Ryo coughed twice, tried to stand up, collapsed again on his face, then immediately sprang up and tried to look valiant. "Lucky shot."

"Luck my ass. Remember, I trained in this gravity. This is my home turf."

Ryo stepped back up to the matt, brushed the dust from his T-shirt and set himself up again in a fighting stance. "Who taught you how to fight anyway? You use a kickboxing stance, but your technique reminds me of Judo... sort of."

Naomi grinned. "In this gravity, throwing techniques are your best friend. You don't have a lot of weight to shift, so you have to use it wisely."

Ryo nodded, adjusting the position of his foot on the matt, "You know it's only a matter of time before I figure out what color they are."

"And it's only a matter of time before I get to your secret stash... by the way, just how much ramen are we talking about anyway?"

"How much?" He sprang forward in one massive leap, jabbing twice with his left, then two hard punches with his right, letter her block with the usual ease. He tossed two more jabs at her knee with his right foot, shifting her feet where he wanted them and setting her up for his move. She tried at him with a right cross, but timing her movement he bounced off the matt and snap kicked her under the jaw before she could block. Naomi ended up flipping head over heals, ultimately landing on her stomach a few feet away from him. "Let me put it this way," He stepped up next to her and reached down to pull her back up, "It's enough to feed Mike for a month."

Naomi grabbed his hand and pulled up to her feet, brushed the dirt off her tank top and glared at him. "That's a lot of ramen."

"Damn right."

She patted him on the shoulder and started to walk back out of the gym, then at the last moment stopped and stuck her index finger and thumb into her cheek.

"What's wrong?" Ryo asked after a moment.

Her fingers fiddled around in her cheek for a moment, then gave a yank, and came out of her mouth with one of her wisdom teeth. She glared at it for a moment, then looked up at Ryo with a friendly smile. "Nice kick."

"That doesn't hurt?"

"Nope. It's fake." She gestured for him to move closer and look at it, and once he did he found himself staring at it in curiosity.

It looked normal on the outside, but examining the underside where the root of the tooth should have been he saw a tiny metal cylinder with three small grooves cut into the sides of it. "A transmitter."

"Uh huh."

Ryo felt a chill run down his spine. "Then the Titans know where we are?"

"Hell no. I fried this thing before the Tarawa even left port, way back before Operation Stardust. I meant to have Pearson yank it, but I guess it slipped my mind."

Ryo looked at the false tooth for a moment more, and all at once an idea came to him. "I'm assuming that was planted on you when you joined Project N?"

Naomi nodded. "Carter keeps very close track of his test subjects."

"Then... Alice should have one installed as well, right?"

Naomi raised a brow, the thought occurring to her suddenly as well as the usefulness of it. "It has a range of about 500 kilometers."

"Then we should be able to track Alice wherever she goes, right? I mean... well she won't be able to sneak up on us like she usually does?"

Naomi nodded, a smile forming on her face. "I'll get Kelly to rig a transponder to key on it. Good idea, by the way."

"Thank you." He started off towards the men's locker room to change clothes and shower, but no sooner did he push through the door did he notice Naomi casually follow him inside. "Ladies room is down the hall, Commander."

"Nope. They converted it into a broom closet. I suppose women don't work out here very often."

Ryo thought about it for a few moments, then sighed and sat down on a bench. "If Brian asks, this never happened."

Naomi sat down on the other end of the bench at another locker. "What difference does that make?"

"Please! I've seen you together, everybody knows you two have a thing. So you and Brian did the nasty, huh?"

Naomi chuckled, almost girlishly and pulled off her T-shirt. Ryo respectfully turned his back to her. "It's sort of a fling right now, but... well, let's wait and see where it goes?"

"If I know Brian, it won't go far. He gets bored easily."

"Bored how?" She discarded the rest of her clothes in favor of a bath towel and darted into a shower stall before he could sneak a peak. "With women or sex?"

"Both." He listened for the sound of running water in the showers before turning back to his locker and changing his own clothes. "It's always this way. He gets hot and heavy with some girl for a while, then next thing you know he stands her up on a date to take Alice to the movies or something."

"But Alice isn't here..."

"Well think about it," Ryo tossed aside his own clothes and stepped into the stall next to hers. "With Alice piloting that new mobile suit, Brian's likely to focus on her like never before. Obsessive behavior is his motto when it comes to family matters."

Naomi thought about it for a few moments, realizing at length that Ryo was right. "Well... I can live with that. I mean, she is his baby sister after all." She looked around the stall in frustration, then added, "You have shampoo over there?"

He slid the bottle under the gap between the wall and the floor and Naomi snatched it up with her toes. "Speaking of sisters," Ryo said, changing the subject, "What's up with Commander Larson? If I didn't know better I'd swear you two were related."

Naomi's jaw clenched reflexively. "We're not."

"You sure? She looks a lot like you."

"Nope." She rinsed her hair down under the spray, letting the water pressure message her scalp. "Just somebody I used to know a long time ago."

Ryo took a stab in the dark. "Does this have anything to do with your sister Anna?"

With a growl, Naomi turned off the shower and stormed out of the stall, dried herself quickly with her towel and started back into her uniform before the conversation could drag on. "I told you before, you wouldn't understand."

"I beg to differ." Ryo stepped out of the stall after her, not really caring anymore that both of them were completely naked in a public locker room. "What is it about me that makes me unable to understand?"

Naomi stepped into a pair of sweat pants, Ryo pulled on his boxers. "You had a happy childhood. You had a family, a roof over your head, you had a home, a job, you even had a girlfriend who wasn't bad looking."

"And that makes us so different? I killed three mobile suits with a construction pod during the One Week Battle... is that something Beaver Cleaver could do?"

Naomi chuckled, wiggling into a fresh sports-bra. "Okay, you want the truth?"

"Of course I do." Ryo pulled on his T-shirt.

Naomi stood up and walked across the locker room and stepped up onto the bench in front of him. "I'll tell you what we'll do," A mischievous grin spread across her face, something that completely failed to surprise him. She reached into his locker and snatched a black pen, held it up to the center of her sternum and drew a tiny black circle. "If you can land a punch right here, I'll tell you the whole story about Gwen and Anna and me. All the details, no matter how embarrassing."

"C'mon, I just got out of the shower..."

"Then make it quick before we get all sweaty again."

"Could you at least put some clothes on?"

"Don't be a wuss. C'mon!"

He looked around the locker room to make sure they were alone again, not wanting to have any sort of audience for the always comical sight of a pair of officers sparing in their underwear. He stepped up and stood on the bench with her, squared up in front of her, cracked his knuckles and shifted his weight. They stood perfectly still for almost a full minute, staring at each other...

Then Ryo moved. He started with a jab to throw her off, then led with two more to test her defenses. Naomi swatted his hands away and back-stepped, still grinning as the game went on. "Keep trying," she taunted.

Ryo tried again, attacking with one arm, feinting with the left, then leading with a quick kick to her ankle to throw her off balance. She stooped to adjust for just a moment, but ducked again before his fist could hit the mark. "Nice one!"

"I'm not done!" He moved in again, with more quick jabs with his left, then came flying out from the right with a punch that would have leveled her on contact. 

She saw it coming well ahead of time and ducked it fully, then straightened up just in time to block another attack just short of hitting the mark. "Getting warmer."

"You have no idea." This time when he jabbed again, all the strength was gone from his arms. He seemed to be relaxed now, barely using any force at all, and just for a moment when she let her guard down he went around her block and gently tapped her on the forehead. She swatted his hand away in annoyance, but he reached up with his other hand and tapped her again.

"Stop that." She growled."

"Stop what?" He threw another ineffectual jab at the top of her head, and as she blocked with one arm he used the opening to reach in and gently slap the side of her face.

"So you're giving up?" She said, her playful grin all but vanished.

"Hell no." He shifted his weight back a bit, putting some distance between then, tossing out a few useless jabs he knew she would simply block without any effort.

"This is boring now."

"I think this is a lot of fun."

"I give up."

He jabbed again, letting her block, then reached around her arm and pinched her skin just above her hip. "I don't."

Mockery was all she could take; now Naomi threw a punch. Ryo dodged it as it came out, then two more behind it as she tried to knock him off the bench. He blocked a right cross, a hook, a pair of snap kicks in short order, then answered with one of his own right into the pit of her gut.

The moment it made contact he felt something in his own stomach, a fluttering sensation, as if the already low gravity of the moon were fading somehow... he tried to ignore it as Naomi charged in again, letting fly with the full force of her fist against his head. He let her make contact, knocking him into a full spin on the bench, and as he steadied himself again he was satisfied to see she was once again overextended. She had forgotten the point of the game. "I told you this was fun!" He shouted, lunging forward.

She dove forward at him in what would have been an impressive football tackle, if only Ryo hadn't left his feet at that moment, leaping to one side and springing off a row of lockers next to the bench before rebounding back in her direction and catching her from the side with his left fist. 

Naomi ended up in a tumble, rolling across the floor haphazardly before finally coming to rest on her back in a bit of a daze. She looked up and cleared her head just in time to see Ryo appear above her, his fist already on his downward plunge to the appointed mark. "Now quit hiding things from me!" He shouted out, half playfully as his hand came down. Reflexively, Naomi raised her own arm in hopes of striking back...

To their combined amazement, neither of their fists made contact. Instead of striking against bone and flesh, each hit the center of the other's chest and passed right through as if it were a mirage and disappearing within, each taking in the entire length of the other's arm with nothing to emerge from the other side.

Gravity faded away, a field of brilliant stars surged around them, blinding them, stripping away the world and leaving them alone in a sea of light. He was completely alone now, and had the strangest sensation as if he were floating at the bottom of the ocean. He couldn't see or hear anything around him other than a distance whispering voice on the tip of his ear. He listened for a few moments, and the voice became clearer, "Nice punch."

"Thank you," He whispered back, not really understanding where the voice was coming from. "No one's ever done that before have they?"

"Only one... Samir did, a long time ago. He's always been good and breaking down barriers."

He squinted through the sea of light and saw her there, bathed in a luminous foam like liquid fire. It had to stare at her for several moments before he noticed something was different about her... her hair color had changed from cherry red to a jet-black. Looking at Naomi in this way, it was the first time he had ever seen her as beautiful. "Why?" He asked gently.

"Because you respect me, Ryo. I didn't want to jeopardize that."

Ryo nodded, and found himself slowly drifting closer to her. "Why are you always building barriers? To keep people like me out?"

"No," She said, a note of shyness in her voice. "To keep myself in."

"Why?"

"I'm not as strong as you are, Ryo, though I'd like to be. I always heard about what you did during the war and it inspired me to become stronger. You see, you taught me how to keep on living no matter how painful it was, and it's a lesson I never forgot. You were my idol."

He felt a tingle in his face and chest as if his entire body were blushing. "You never told me that before... I guess I understand why."

She paused for a moment, allowing herself to drift closer to him. Somehow the light she wore as a garment warmed him as she came closer, "I admire you, Ryo. Even after they took away everything you cared about, you still fought back and you punished them for it. If I was half the person you are..."

He reached out to her, the heat from the lights warming his skin almost to the point of burning until he could feel the fire in the center of his chest. "Don't be silly, Naomi," He took her hand and pulled her in closer, finally able to look into her eyes, "You've tackled bigger problems than I have ever imagined. You're twice the person I am... if anything, I should be the one to admire you."

She smiled at the thought, drawing nearer to him each moment. The lights swirling around her came up around both of them and began to seal them off from the rest of the world, "I've always been with you, Ryo..."

"I know." The light started to close around them and the world started to fade to darkness, "And we always will..."

He snapped awake with a throbbing in the sides of his head, looked around in confusion. He was lying on his back in a shower stall in the locker room with the privacy curtain closed. Naomi was curled up next to him like a kitten, her head resting on her chest like a pillow, fast asleep. From the tiny puddle of drool on his chest and Naomi's gentle snoring he could guess she had been asleep for at least two hours, but it still left him to wonder just how exactly they had ended up in the shower in the first place. He tried to remember how they had come to this position, even wondered if a bit of alcohol wasn't involved... but when he searched his memory for answers, he began to find memories of a life that was not his. He remembered Granada, the slums, the predators, the lunatic street preachers who all too often doubled as pimps. He remembered Gwen Larson, he remembered Anna, for one brief horrifying moment he ever remembered Admiral Dyson... 

He banished the memory with a strong force of will, fighting the chill that ran down his spine as the images and sensations lingered in his brain. "My God..." He whispered, looking at the young officer sleeping next to him, seeing her as she was for the first time since he had met her. 

A slip of paper tucked into the strap on the back of her bra caught his attention, and plucking it from confinement he read it over out of curiosity: _Whatever the hell has gotten into you two, I hope you managed to work it out of your system. Briefing at 19:00 hours tomorrow, be there or be square. – Love, Mike._


	22. Chapter 21: Earthlight

How lucky the heart where love makes its home, for love makes it forget the cares of the world! Love is like the bolt of lightening, which sets fire to patience and reason and reduces them to nothing.  
The lover becomes careless of his own safety. Mountains of blame weigh no more for him than a straw; criticism only increases his passion._  
- Jami_  


* * *

**Chapter 21: Earthlight**

_  
- May 24, UC 0084 -  
- 1002 hours (CST) -  
_It required a substantial leap of imagination to define Lucifer as a true mobile suit. It it's current configuration it looked more like a fortress than anything else, with beam cannons and sensor equipment bristling on all sides. Once the mobile suit unfolded itself, he knew, Lucifer would be a mobile weapon with no equal anywhere in the universe—that is, at least until the rollout of Lucifer's big brother. 

Even Admiral Carter barely recognized the mobile suit he had personally helped to design, mainly due to the necessary modifications by the Murasame Institute to make the system more efficient than its original specs. "What do you think, Nine?" He said, nodding over his shoulder, "Is this more to your liking?" 

Nine sighed and set her hands against the veiwport on the bridge. "Even if I could see it, I wouldn't dignify that with an answer." 

Carter chuckled, not wanting to get into yet another ego-war with the young pilot, but satisfied himself for the moment with watching the mechanical teams load the mobile armor into the Dogos Gaia's aft hangar deck, a section of the battleship that had once been large enough for an entire squadron of Saberfish fighters. "If you're not particularly busy, Lieutenant, I want you to go below decks and start running simulations on this machine." 

"I'll get around to it." Nine said passively. 

"I mean now, Lieutenant, not when you feel like it." 

Nine turned around slowly and scowled in his general direction, "I'll get to it when I get to it. Get off my back!" And she turned towards the main hatch and disappeared through it without another word, leaving the Admiral to his frustrations. 

At the same moment the Lieutenant departed the bridge, the hatch on the opposite side opened for Admiral Carter's visitor, several minutes later than he had expected but present nonetheless. "I believe there's something we need to discuss, Admiral," He said in his usual drum roll of a voice. 

Something in Colonel Bosque's tone filled the air between them with a stink of suspicion. Suddenly Admiral Carter felt like a smuggler trying to talk his way through a customs office. "That so? Anything specific?" 

Bosque walked to the glass panel on the starboard side of the bridge and gestured at the immense mobile armor lingering outside, even as the machine slowly moved around to aft to be loaded into the hangar. "There's a problem with your team's progress reports, especially related to Project N." 

"What problem, specifically?" 

"That the reports are all blank. And even when your team does manage to advance in some way, the end results are always negligible." 

Carter had expected this, though somehow he was surprised that Colonel Bosque himself had come all this way to settle the matter personally instead of sending one of his lackeys to inquire for him. It didn't take much to read between the lines: Bosque had a closer eye on him than he thought. "It takes patience to develop technology like this, Colonel." He said, keeping a mask of calm on his features, "And the strides we have made from this project already will benefit the Titans forces for many years to come..." 

"What do you take me for, Carter?" Bosque said with the faintest of smirks. "You've been developing Project N since before the Titans were formed, and yet no one outside of the development team knows any of the details. The only reason you've lasted as long as you have is because no one in the top brass is aware how many failures you've experienced." 

"Except for you, Colonel." 

Bosque grinned. "Which is about the only thing saving your ass right now." 

"I don't understand." 

"Let's just say your team is no longer leading the pack as far as newtype research. Not surprising, really, considering your knack for failure." 

Admiral Carter was silent for a long moment, his mind grappling with this bit of news even as he made the mental connections. Bosque didn't seem forthcoming, but he couldn't help but demand details. "I've been working directly with the Murasame Institute..." 

"And the Murasame Institute is in the back seat now. Colonel Dallas' team in Augusta is working on a new prototype transformable mobile suit, and with their current production schedule, they will have it on the assembly line within the next two years. They've already completed a training regiment for their "strengthened humans" program, which includes psychological conditioning and newtype enhancement." 

"And this new prototype is superior to the Flash Gundam?" Carter said skeptically. 

Bosque grinned again. "The hell it is. But the units they're working on are production models, not experimental units, so once the Gaplant's trial run finishes, mass production immediately follows. In other words, Admiral, Project N may have potential, but the Augusta Labs will have a finished product while your team is still in the test stages." 

"But in the mean time, the Flash Gundam has already proven itself a superior design. By the time Psycho Gundam is ready for trials..." 

"You know good and damn well that even your Flash Gundams cannot be mass produced, let alone behemoths like Lucifer or the Psycho. The Titans do not need a handful of unbeatable super weapons, but we do need powerful--and most importantly-- RELIABLE weapons on a massive scale." 

Admiral Carter felt a bitter taste swelling on his tongue, magnified a thousand times by the gloating smirk on Colonel Bosque's face. He wanted more than anything to remove it forcefully, but for the sake of possible humiliation by the Colonel's fist, he held his temper in check. "And what about my project?" He said, feeling much like a child asking his mother for a cookie. 

Bosque picked up on this as well, and it visibly amused him to no end. "I consider myself a fair man, Admiral." He said this with irony, as if with full knowledge of the opposite, "I'll let you keep your little pet project for now. We have practically unlimited funding, so you can continue your research as much as you like. But at this moment, Project N is no longer a significant consideration in Titans strategy. You will, of course, be informed if we ever do find a use for it." 

Carter's frustration began to pile in the pit of his stomach. "Colonel, all it took was a single mobile suit to turn the tide of the One Year War..." 

"Your grasp of history is childish." The Colonel turned towards the very hatch through which he had entered. "The tide of the war changed because of the superiority of Earthnoid engineering, not to mention Earth-trained pilots. But to the spacenoids, the Gundam became the walking symbol of Federation supremacy." He paused at the door and glanced back with a smirk, "And it will be again." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

Bosque left without answering, leaving Admiral Carter to wonder., _Is all that talk about a Gundam Mk-II really just a rumor? _  


_- 1231 hours (CST) -  
_The Galbaldy fired its reverse thrusters to cut its forward motion, then in a split second slammed on its afterburners and pushed straight up from the lunar surface on a column of fire. Naomi reacted on a hair-trigger, pulling the controls back and surging upwards in pursuit; the g-force slammed her against the restraints and then down into her seat as the mobile suit maneuvered, and yet the Galbaldy was still just a few steps ahead of her. "How long can you keep this up?" 

"Long enough!" He reversed thrust again and rolled off to one side, firing off a well-placed shot from his clay bazooka as the Alex shot past him in ascent. The splatter round flattened itself against the Gundam's shield, and Naomi's reflex was to reverse again and line up another shot, but in a split second she sensed Ryo's next move and reversed back to dodge his next two shots... 

Even as she dodged, she felt the controls push back against her hands and the pedals stiffen up beneath her feet. She didn't have time to contemplate it, but found herself cursing under her breath at the machine's timing for a malfunction. "You can't keep playing luck in your favor!" 

"The hell I can't! And anyway...!" 

"Shut up and fly!" Naomi locked on and fired ahead of him, predicting his movements and firing a splatter shell right where she knew he would be. Ryo snapped his thrusters back a split second before the shell would have hit his cockpit, but failed to roll out as another round slammed into his left shoulder, splattering the armor of his arm with a adhesive clay. "How do you like that?!" 

"Not bad, Naomi, but try this on for size!" Ryo inverted the mobile suit and fired all of his thrusters straight down towards the moon, diving from the sky at full speed as Naomi dove after him, lining up another shot. He waited for her to lock on, then as she fired dodged quickly to one side and charged back up at an angle, firing his clay bazooka at almost point-blank range. The shell hit a section of the torso just below the upper radiator, but neither of them registered the hit; Ryo immediately circled away at full afterburner while the Gundam rebounded off the lunar soil and then took to the air again. 

Naomi took half a second to reload the clay bazooka, Ryo took half a second to do the same, and immediately both fired two more shots at each other's directions as they continued to circle away from each other. 

Ryo landed again in the dust, crouched down behind the lip of a crater and took a few moments to catch his breath, while Naomi did the same in another crater farther off. The power of the mobile suit throwing itself around space had been rattling his insides around like pennies in a jar, yet somehow he was a little surprised at just how well his machine was able to keep up with the Gundam. "Call me crazy, but this thing handles a little different from the Alpha Gundam." 

"I know," Naomi lifted her head slightly out of the crater and scanned the landscape for him, "I was assigned to a Gal-Alpha with the Republican Guard. Those units were just a few steps below Alex in agility, but their response time was a lot slower." 

"Well these upgraded Betas don't have that problem. It feels a tad faster than the Gundam, if you ask me." He swung the mono-eye in a half circle and surveyed the landscape, formulating a plan to get the edge on his opponent. "You never thought of upgrading to another unit?" 

"No. Why?" 

"Well the magnetic coating makes Alex faster than any of the older models, but new units like the Hizack are all using electronic bearings, which has the same effect." 

Naomi thought about this for a moment, then did a mental shrug. "Alex still has more thrust than the Hizack." 

"Yeah, but he's heavier too. Besides, a year from now the Titans will have some mobile suits that can fly circles around anything we've got today." 

Naomi knew this was true, and having to be reminded of it now made her feel small for some reason. "I even heard they're planning to standardize Luna Titanium." 

"Maybe not on a massive scale, but you'll definitely see a lot more designs using it." 

A strange impulse surged in her blood—Naomi's feet slammed the pedals down and the Gundam leapt from concealment without thrusters, landed on the dust and then jumped again in the direction she sensed Ryo was hiding. "I think Alex still has some life in him!" 

"You think so?" He sensed her approach as she descended in the lunar gravity, and waited for her to get closer... and at the last instant he sensed Naomi was about to land in the crater, he sprang up from concealment himself, jumping hundreds of meters into the air without using his verniers. 

The action caught Naomi off guard, but she just managed to cut in the thrusters and ascend again, locking on for a kill shot. But the instant she pulled the trigger, the Galbaldy cut in its own verniers and dove towards her, catching her shot against its shield. Naomi met the challenge and locked on, but in an instant Ryo changed angles again before she could get a shot off, passing beneath her legs and firing off three quick splatter shells just as the Gundam spun around again to face him. Naomi sensed his attack and reversed directions, but again she felt the tension of feedback from the controls and resistance from her Gundam. She managed to dodge the first shell, but the next two shells scored hits—one splattered against the cockpit and the other hit the Gundam's face, blinding all of the primary sensors. "Gotcha, Commander. Three to two." 

"Dammit all!" She slammed her fist against the instrument panel in frustration, then switched over to backup cameras to guide herself back to the ground. She landed in the dust at the edge of the crater, and Ryo's suit landed in front of her and opened the utility port in one of its fingers. "I must be loosing my edge." She said as the Galbaldy began spraying the splattered clay rounds with a solvent, "Think maybe my golden years are spent?" 

Ryo chuckled. "You got careless. It happens sometimes." 

"No, that's not it... but..." 

"But what?" 

The adhesive clay on the face plate melted and fell away, clearing her cameras and sensors enough for her to switch back to the main system, "Alex just isn't responding like he should. The controls feel heavy, the movements are sluggish..." 

"Alex isn't the problem, Commander. You are." 

"What do you mean?" 

"The trouble is that you're so much faster than Alex, the computer has to cut in the limiter. You keep burning out the motors like that, Alex isn't gonna last much longer." 

Naomi looked down at her instrument panel in surprise. "Is THAT what's wrong with this thing?" 

"I'm afraid so. The AMBAC system just can't move that fast." 

Naomi sighed again and started walking towards Tycho city. "No problem, I'll just have Kelly reset the limiter again..." Then it occurred to her, a thought as inescapable as it was disheartening, "What did he set it to last time?" 

"350%. And the machine shop is having trouble keeping all the parts working." 

The lights of Tycho city appeared on the horizon, and Naomi realized with a certain fascination that despite the sunlight lighting the landscape around them now, the city in the distance was already bathed in darkness. "Is Alex really that obsolete?" 

"Even with its advanced design and all the upgrades, the fact is that Alex was designed during the One Year War. Federation mobile suits were still a novelty back then." 

Naomi took this to heart and filed it away for later; for now, she walked Alex to the top of a hill and gestured for Ryo to join her there. She opened her cockpit and emerged with a vernier pack, crossed the short distance between them to set down on the top of the armored blast shield in front of the Galbaldy's cockpit. Ryo opened the hatch and joined her there, and both sat side by side and looking out over the Lunar plane in the direction of the immense impact crater to the south where Tycho city had been built. The sun was beginning to set in the northwest, and the line between night and day appeared on the horizon and came rushing towards them at hundreds of miles per hour. "You ever seen a Lunar sunset, Ryo?" 

"Of course." Ryo watched the line of shadow race towards them, and then flinched as the darkness swept over the land and the sun disappeared behind the opposite horizon. In an instant, every star in the sky tripled in brightness, and a soft bluish-white glow beamed down on the landscape from the crescent Earth hanging in the sky. 

They sat in silence in the tranquility of the moonscape, until Ryo broke the silence with a chuckle. "What's so funny?" Naomi asked. 

"Just remembering that time you and Anna went out in the eclipse with some stolen normal suits, and it was so dark you couldn't see anything so of course you got lost. But when the sun came back..." 

"Anna jumped out of the shadows and scared the hell outa me!" Naomi chuckled at it herself, then stopped and looked at him in utter shock, "How'd you know about that?!" 

Ryo thought for a moment, "You told me, didn't you?" 

"No. I didn't." 

"Are you sure? I distinctly remember..." Then the thought occurred to him that he didn't remember himself when she might have told him this, or even when he might have heard the story from someone else. In fact, the only thing he could remember about the incident was the memory itself, the experience of it, and the single moment of absolute terror when the sun emerged from behind the Earth and Anna leapt out of the darkness with her arms flailing in the air. "I remember it though..." All at once he remembered back to the incident in the locker room, and the flood of memories he had accessed then and ever since. A thought occurred to him as an echo from Brian's Contolism books, "Naomi, do you remember Emily Regan?" 

She smiled automatically without thinking, "Of course I do." 

"Where'd you meet her?" 

"Working in the loading dock in Nobel Col..." She stopped herself, suddenly realizing the memory in her mind was not her own, "Nobel Colony..." 

"Me and Emily were engaged." 

"I know. I... I remember." 

They turned slowly and looked at each other, and here in the pale Earthlight, even through the visors of their normal suits, they found in each other's eyes a safety neither of them had ever felt before. They were alone for a light year in every direction, nothing between them, not even their own defenses. It was something neither of them had felt for many years. A trust beyond friendship, even beyond family... 

The radio crackled in Ryo's suit on the usual contact code, and a distant yet familiar voice invaded their private world under the Earthlight, "803, this is Empty Nest, please respond." 

Ryo hesitated for a few moments, but answered the signal without breaking contact with Naomi's eyes, "803, here. What's up, Brian?" 

"Intelligence division just called in. Commander Larson's called for a briefing of the senior staff and pilots." 

"When?" 

"1930 hours tonight. Are you two done sparring yet?" 

Ryo deferred to Naomi, and she nodded without speaking. "Yeah, that's it for today. We're on our way back." 

"Roger that... uh..." He paused for a long moment, then sighed in frustration, "Ryo, Naomi's radio isn't responding. I don't suppose you could ask--?" 

"You two still on tonight?" He said, knowing the request even before Brian could finish. 

Naomi nodded again, and this time opened her own radio lines to speak. "Meet me at the rock garden after the briefing's over. And wear something nice this time, okay?" 

"Sure, okay. See you back at the barn." Brian closed the radio from his end, Ryo and Naomi did much the same. 

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, almost forgetting they had been interrupted at all. Five more minutes passed this way, until at length Ryo patted her on the shoulder and smiled. "C'mon. We better head back before we run out of air.  


_- 1740 hours (CST) -  
_Juan Dyson was the absolute last person in the world he wanted to see right now, despite what Rico had come to know about his Uncle over the years and the circumstances that suddenly placed them on opposite sides of a battle line. The Rear-Admiral had raised him almost from birth, ever since the plane crash near Madrid that claimed both of his parents when he was only four months old. Uncle Juan had raised him, taught him everything he knew about life, brought him up in a military tradition, grooming him to a fine-tuned pilot of an FFS-3 Saberfish. Now he found himself staring at a computer terminal, half-mesmerized by the blinking light in the corner of the screen as the computer routed his signal to the Titans base at Blue Nobel colony. It couldn't be helped; to avoid a trace, the laser signal would be bounced off so many satellites and relay networks with so many ghost traces that it would take the Titans intelligence a week to trace it, and then only if he left the channel open the entire time. 

After what seemed like a dozen eternities, the flashing light pulsed to a steady green, and Rico reached up slowly and tapped the box in the upper right hand corner to connect the channel. He had masked the contact code so Dyson would read it as a priority signal from Jaburo, but judging by the expression that suddenly flashed into existence and filled his monitor he could tell that the Admiral had been long expecting his call. "Hello, Boy." He said, voice almost a growl of contempt, "Glad to see you're alive. This is good news." 

Rico stared at the monitor for a moment, saying nothing. He nodded his head slowly, silently indicating to the Admiral that this was not a signal between allies. 

Admiral Dyson appeared to have expected this as well. "So this is what it comes to, isn't it?" He said with a sigh, "After all I've taught you about loyalty, about honor, about being a man, you've decided..." 

"I've decided to stick with the only people I can trust. You did, after all, teach me about a soldier's duty to his comrades. Even if I did have any ties to Earth besides a paycheck and a commission, I still wouldn't desert my comrades even to save myself." 

"Very noble of you. I suppose you want a medal too while you're at it?" 

Rico took a deep slow breath. Juan was a creature of habit after all. He had never known the man to be any more pleasant and understanding than this. "I thought we might clear the air a little, just so we understand each other." 

"I understand perfectly, Boy. You've turned your back on everything you are, your heritage, your culture... you've run off with a pack of bleeding-heart liberals and terrorists." 

Rico shook his head slowly. "Try to be a little more open minded today, Uncle." 

Juan paused for a moment, calmed his temper, then said again with a mask of calmness over his voice. "Okay. What did you want me to understand?" 

It was something he had needed to say to the Admiral for a very long time, yet now with hundreds of thousands of miles separating them and a different insignia on their uniforms, there was just enough distance left for him to put it on the table. "All my life, I was brought up to be what you wanted me to be. There was always duty, obligation, expectations... I was never tough enough, I was never manly enough..." 

"You have an issue to discuss? Let's hear it." 

"Mainly, Sir... I never learned until recently that there's more to life than just obedience. Sometimes you have to take initiative, and that's why I am where I am now." 

Juan stared at him for a long chilling moment, and then to Rico's total surprise, he grinned. "It's good that you've finally learned that, Boy... a pity it took a group of wannabees like the AEUG to bring that out of you." 

The conversation had started to make him angry. He decided to skip the rest of it and cut to the chase. "Why are you doing all this?" 

Juan's grin turned back into his usual grim visage. "All what?" 

"This... this conquest, this little war you're stirring up. What's the purpose of all this? What are you after?" 

Juan smiled, much wider this time. "You haven't figured that out yet? Our purpose is to achieve and maintain the dominance of the Earth federation over the space colonies once and for all." 

"By killing innocent people? Don't play games with me, Uncle Juan, you knew those transports were loaded with civilians. Why would you...?" 

"To set an example. No mercy will be shown to those who fellowship with terrorists." 

"But..." 

Juan's fist hit the desk in front of him with such force that Rico could almost feel it in his chest across a hundred thousand miles. "What the hell is this, Ricardo?! Is THAT your objection to the Titans? You don't wanna hurt any of the pretty flowers, is that it?" 

Rico felt his chest tightening in a familiar way, yet for some reason he found himself just able to fight it back. "Maybe human life means more to me than it does to you?" 

"Bullshit," Juan snarled, leaning closer to the monitor until his face eclipsed the screen, "You've always been spineless like this, a real disappointment just like your father. Look at yourself, sitting there in the dark whimpering, "Uncle Juan, why are the Titans so cruel," like a little sissy! I tried to teach you many things, Boy, but I guess I never did teach you how to be a man!" 

Rico brushed it off; it was becoming more and more easy for him, something he hadn't expected in a million years but welcomed at this time and place. "You spent my entire life trying to teach me how to be cruel. I watched you destroy people just for the hell of it. I stood there and watched you torture Naomi and I even let you make me..."

"I didn't MAKE you do a goddamn thing! You wanted it, you took it, and you know you enjoyed it!" 

"Even if I did, I can't forgive myself for it." It felt like a fist reaching into his chest and squeezing his heart. He moved on quickly before the memories could swim back to the surface. "It's just not who I am, Uncle Juan. It's not who I have ever been, or who I ever will be." 

Admiral Dyson's face overflowed with contempt. "Spineless! That's all you are, Ricardo, A spineless little boy! You'll be a boy forever!" 

The memories could not stay gone, especially after this. Juan had used those same words four years ago... with all the ceremony of a sack of old socks, Juan Dyson had dumped a young girl's body on his lap, stripped and beaten, soaked in her own blood, still impaled through the shoulder blade by an eight-inch field knife. Rico had sat there staring at her for almost half a minute before his uncle kicked him in the ribs and spat at him, "Spineless! Get on it Ricardo, you wanna be a little boy forever?!" Rico had wanted more than anything to make his uncle proud of him, and for a time even managed to convince himself that the misshapen mass of flesh in front of him was something other than a human being... 

Then her eyes opened. It had startled him beyond words, so much so that he had stumbled away to a corner and vomited behind one of the dumpsters before wandering back home in a daze. In his mind he saw her as she was four years ago... and then in his mind's eye he saw above them, the blackened shape of a Gundam, it's eyes glowing fiercely in jade flame. "You don't get it..." The memory faded into the back again, and Rico started to grin, "You really don't get it, do you Juan?" 

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Get what?" 

Rico reached to the corner of the screen and paused his finger just over the icon that would cut off the communications. "Haven't you learned anything yet? All your brutality, all your oppression, everything you do to intimidate and control Naomi just makes her stronger and more determined. You thought she would cave if you pressured her, but instead she turned and took a shot at you. What makes you think the colonies will react any differently?" 

Juan's response was automatic, "Because like Naomi, they know that if they ever challenge our authority, we'll..." All at once, Rico's point struck him like a ton of bricks. He no longer had any authority over her that she could not reject, no control she could not break, no presence she could not challenge. She had already grown far beyond his control, and retribution would be highest on her to-do list. "For once in your life, you just might be right." 

"Yeah. Scary isn't it?" Rico said mockingly. 

"Well what do you suggest I do? Send her a teddy bear?" 

"Better than nothing... but you're gonna need about five billion more." 

Juan snickered. "I'll bill it to the taxpayers." 

Rico stared through the monitor and across a distance of a hundred thousand miles, and for just an instant, for the firs time in years, the two men reached and understanding. "You know how this will end." 

The Admiral nodded. "Yes I do. And there's nothing I can do to change it. We are what we are, like it or not." 

"Yes sir." 

"I'll see you on the firing line... stay safe until then." 

"Yes sir." Rico tapped the icon and closed the channel, then tilted back in his chair and kicked his feet up on the desk in front of the monitor. He folded his arms behind his head, concentrating his thoughts in silent reflection, _I think I'm going to enjoy watching her kill him. _  


_- 1950 hours (CST) -  
_"In the olden days of maritime affairs, this was known as "gunboat economics." In this case, Side 2 is exploiting the economic crisis on Earth, so Earth is attempting to impose a crisis on Side 2 with military force." Commander Larson pointed to a chart on the monitor, indicating the number of incoming and outgoing transports, as well as highlighting the ones that had been intercepted and impounded by the Federation blockade. "And so far it hasn't been working." 

Vanessa squinted at the chart, not sure if she was reading it correctly. "Looks like they've caught up less than a third of the ships." 

"Twenty nine percent, at last check. Most of these freighter captains taught themselves how to avoid patrols during the One Year War, so a Federation blockade is nothing new to them. But the Federation is aware of this as well, and the blockade is intended as little more than a form of harassment." 

Duncan had already figured as much, but he could sense this was not the main objective of the briefing. "I guess the AEUG is going to be sponsoring a rally or something to protest, right?" 

Gwen nodded. "Governing bodies in twelve colonies have endorsed it. The majority of the population is expected to support the rally, and I'm sure more than a few in the non-endorsing colonies will hold one anyway. All that public outrage will bring the Federation even more into suspicion in the eyes of spacenoids, especially considering they're not likely to lift this blockade any time soon." 

The briefing on the Side 2 situation had been running now for nearly twenty minutes, with Commander Larson giving them all the details of the situation, the number of ships, the relation to Operation Stardust, even AEUG operations in the area to date. Brian had filed it all away for future reference, but he got the impression the actual focus of the meeting had yet to be revealed. "Of course, you didn't bring us here for this naval blockade, did you?" 

Gwen smiled. "Quite right, Captain. But in the context of this naval blockade, something else has come to our attention." She tapped the computer input on the lectern in front of her and the screen on the wall changed from the chart of blockade runners to a still photograph from a recon ship. There were several ships in frame, but from such a distance that the exact types couldn't be discerned. "An AEUG patrol spotted a small Titans fleet entering the blockade zone nine days ago. They counted six vessels total; four light cruisers, an assault carrier, and a heavy cruiser. Then six days later, they were joined by an additional warship of an unknown type." She flipped through four separate slides until they came to one that showed the Titans fleet in higher resolution along with their new arrival. 

Naomi recognized the entire formation with only one glance; the Agamemnon was near the front, with the four Salamis cruisers in a staggered formation beneath its keel. But father to the rear was a Pegasus class assault carrier, and alongside it was a battleship in dark green paint nearly twice its size. She recognized the ship immediately, but the sheer size of it relative to the carrier was something she had not expected. 

Gwen almost seemed to read her thoughts from across the room. "You've seen these units before, Commander Wilson?" 

Naomi nodded. "The big one by the rear... it's one of the Titans vessels that pursued us on the way to Tycho. It was carrying a squad of advanced mobile suits..." 

"Newtype weapons, correct?" 

Naomi nodded again. "A system I'm very familiar with." 

"As are we. She's called _Dogos Gaia_. We don't know much about her, but we believe the hull was converted from a Birmingham class battleship. It's 480 meters in length, and has a compliment of up to twenty four mobile suits." 

A few amazed whispers circled the room as the Tarawa's senior officers grappled with this information. Even Captain Shiden, sitting in his wheelchair in the corner of the room, couldn't help but be impressed. 

"The mobile suits that attacked us earlier are on board that ship?" Brian said, already knowing the answer. 

Gwen nodded. "As are the pursuit units from the first wave, stationed here on the Agamemnon." 

"Then I suppose our mission objective will be to administer some payback." 

For some reason it began to worry Gwen how Brian's inexperience might work against the crew, but she knew from experience that once she started to doubt him, the doubts would see no end. "Commander Wilson's information, combined with other reports from our intelligence division, have culminated into a very troubling prospect for the AEUG. Our analysts have determined that Project N represents a significant threat to the Earth sphere, especially in the hands of a group like the Titans. Should their development continue unchecked, it could redefine warfare as we know it." She waited for this information to sink in, then continued, "The AEUG has already finalized a long-term timetable for militarization of the colonies. We've entered into a defense agreement with Anaheim Electronics, and at our present rate of buildup we will be ready for open warfare within the next three to five years. In the mean time, the Titans fleet is still vastly superior both in numbers and equipment..." 

"We're not strong enough to take them on directly," Brian simplified for her. "But the longer we wait, the stronger the Titans become." 

Gwen smiled in amusement. _Maybe he's a tad sharper than I thought..._ "Precisely. And this leaves us with a bit of a dilemma. If we allow Project N to develop, by the time we're ready to mobilize it will already be too late. The further development of the project, therefore, must be halted at all costs." 

Mike popped up with a question, "And if we end this program, how do we know they won't finish their work some place else? And while we're at it, the Titans are developing more powerful weapons all over the Earth sphere. How will stopping Project N help us?" 

Gwen answered the second question first. "To be honest, The Titans are already starting to develop weapons decades ahead of their time. We'll have a hard enough time fighting them as is without some newtype-powered doomsday weapon on top of it." She paused for a moment, focusing mainly on Naomi with the next statement, "Even the Titans top brass don't realize what they've got here. Analysts of the former Marquise fleet believe Project N may be on the verge of a major breakthrough. They've already surpassed the Axis Zeons in technology, and if the Titans ever find a way to refine their system..." 

"Then we could be looking at entire squadrons of these... berserker newtypes." Ryo shuddered at the thought even as it occurred to him. Just fighting two of them was difficult enough, but to try to imagine a dozen Flash Gundams, even scaled-down versions of them, caused a chill to migrate his spine. "I can barely imagine..." 

"Needless to say, this operation is our current top priority." Gwen tapped another command on the lectern and the screen changed to the next slide. "The mission codename is Operation Marduk. The primary target for this mission is capture or destruction of the battleship Dogos Gaia and the advanced prototypes she's carrying. Secondary target is the destruction of the Agamemnon, or at the very least the live capture of Rear Admiral Juan Dyson." Her eyes darted to Naomi for a split second, and in an instant Naomi's heart started pounding in her chest. "Tertiary objectives" Gwen finished, "Are the supporting fleet, including the assault carrier riding escort to that battleship and any mobile suits she's carrying." 

Brian took it all in, but found everything about this mission increasingly stacked against them. He glanced across to Naomi's seat for a reaction, but found her staring at the floor, lost in her own thoughts. "One ship against seven... this looks familiar." 

Gwen sighed, feeling the mutual anxiety in the room. "You'll have both of your cruiser escorts, if that means anything." 

"It'll help, but not much." Lucy did the math in her head, "They'll have almost sisxty mobile suits in that fleet. And even if we could get past their defenses, there's still the prototypes to deal with. The last time we fought them..." 

"Alex and Mudrock have the best firepower and speed, and the Galbaldys can match them as well." Vanessa jumped in suddenly, "The trouble is the GMs. They'd be sitting ducks for those prototypes, especially in a furball..." 

"I suppose we could have one of them ride the core booster like we did against the Titov," Lucy said, then shot a glance at Vanessa in time to catch the flash of a grin. 

Commander Larson followed the conversation for only a second longer before she provided them with a partial answer, "We do have one thing," She flipped over to another slide, displaying the schematics for a mobile suit, "Anaheim Electronics sent us a couple of their older prototypes as collateral for our defense contract. Commodore Brex has already arranged to have them transferred here." 

Lucy did a double take at the specs. "I've seen that unit before... isn't that one of Delaz's mobile suits?" 

"Well it's Anaheim's design, I don't know who else they might have sold it to. All I know is that from the specs, it's at least twice as fast as the Galbaldy." 

All of them nodded in distant appreciation, but Lieutenant Dyson, who hadn't said a word since the briefing began, broke into it now with a powerful concern, "And which one of us gets the new models?" 

Naomi looked up suddenly, sensing something in his voice that immediately irritated her. "Why do you ask, Lieutenant?" 

Rico shrugged, trying to look innocent. "Well, Commander, we're going into a difficult mission... I'm just thinking me and Mike won't be much use to the ship with just those GMs." 

Duncan snorted. "I'm sure we can find a couple of old Zakus for you..." 

"Oh, very funny!" 

Mike and Lucy erupted into laughter, but rolling with the momentum, Vanessa joined in, "No, Deuce, he's too good for a Zaku. If he wants to upgrade from a GM, he should probably pilot a Ball." 

Ryo spun around on reflex, "Now THAT'S something I'd pay money to see! Big Rico in a flying coff—!" 

"Shut up, all of you!" Naomi stood up from her chair and faced the rest of the room, a severe expression on her face and tension in her shoulders. "I've made a decision." 

The room was silenced, everyone in earshot knowing something serious was about to happen. Naomi looked at each of them intently as if waiting for a challenge, then stood ramrod straight like a soldier at attention and announced: "The new mobile suits will be piloted by myself and Lieutenant Izumi. Mike and Rico will take the Galbaldys, Duncan and Vanessa will stay in the GM Customs, but Vanessa's unit will be fitted with a high-output beam cannon. Kelly will rig-up an external reactor unit later this week. The Gundam Mudrock is still off limits, but as for the Alex..." Her chest seemed to tighten as she spoke the next part, but with great pain she managed to utter the words, "Lieutenant Matsui will pilot Alex from now on." 

She immediately turned and walked out of the briefing room, shutting the door behind her without another word and leaving the senior officers in a shocked silence. It took them each no less than a full minute to grasp what had just happened, and even when it did they still couldn't believe it. "Did I just..." Mike shook his head in disbelief, "Did I just hear Naomi...?" 

"You heard right, Mike." Lucy said, still in a state of confusion herself. "You know she's been under a lot of pressure lately... but to actually give up the Alex?" 

Ryo sat motionless in his chair for a moment longer, then surged up from his seat for hatch to follow behind Naomi. 

He found her only a few feet down the hall, staring at her feet with a strange, disconnected look in her eyes. He said nothing as he walked up next to her, but put his hand on her shoulder as a friendly gesture. "It's hard getting attached, isn't it?" 

Naomi nodded silently, but then looked up and frowned. "That's not it though." 

"What's wrong then?" 

She looked up and down the corridor to make sure no one else was listening, then looked back up at Ryo and searched his face. He found in her eyes a fear he had never felt before, but in half an instant, for a moment in time, Ryo's mind flooded with memories not his own, of a life he had never lived, from the soul of the person in front of him he had sampled several days before. He knew all the things about her she had worked so hard to keep secret, and he knew now that what she was about to ask him might very well change both of their fates for years to come. "Ryo..." She said tenderly, just above a whisper, "Can you help me to...?" 

"You wanna talk to Gwen?" 

She nodded slightly, the fear in her eyes intensifying. "And I don't know how." 

He understood why without needing to ask; the memories were as real for him as they were for her. But the fact that she was even asking his help meant that something inside her had already changed after their experience together. "Okay then... as soon as you come back from your date, swing by my quarters and we'll have a chat." 

Naomi looked up at him in confusion. "Date? What date?" 

"You and Brian are going out to Rudy's. Remember?" 

She thought about it for a few seconds, then blinked in remembrance. "Shit, I completely forgot about that!" 

Ryo patted her on the shoulder and smiled. "You better go change clothes. They're wrapping up the briefing right now." 

"Alright." She started down the corridor towards the officers quarters, but stopped a few feet down and turned slowly, "Ryo..." She stared at him for a few long moments, a warmth in her eyes beaming across the corridor to him, "Thank you." 

"Any time." He turned back down the corridor and headed off to satisfy a growling in his stomach. He could still feel the warmth of her eyes watching him every step of the way, right up to the point where he turned the corner towards the officer's mess. 


	23. Chapter 22: Remember

We are the things we carry with us day by day. We are our past, we are our memories, we are the hopes and fears of yesterday. Everything that has come before now makes us who we are, everything that has affected us has shaped the metal of our souls. It is in our nature to accept a past that cannot change, but neglect a future that can._  
- Char Aznable_  


* * *

**Chapter 22: Remember**

  
_- June 1, UC 0084 -_  
_- 2140 hours (LST) -_  
Gwen looked up from her book and listened for a few moments, not sure if she had heard anything at all. She'd been so engrossed in the story the rest of the world had faded into the background, but when she listened for another moment she heard it again; a very faint knocking on the other side of the metal door to her quarters. "Just a minute," She said, marking her page and setting the book down on the pillow of the bed.

She tapped the control panel and opened the door, and immediately her heart skipped a beat. It would have been far less of a shock if not for the nervous expression on Naomi's face. "Hi." She said softly, just above a whisper.

"Hi." Gwen shifted her weight awkwardly, noting only as an afterthought that Naomi was doing the same. Something in the back of her mind reassured her that both of them were equally uncomfortable, but the fact that the younger officer hadn't pulled a knife on her yet was a good sign. "Come inside, I'll fix you a drink."

Naomi nodded and stepped into her quarters, closing the door behind her but still not leaving the doorway. Gwen figured that was about as far as she would get her to go. "I came to ask about this mission." Naomi started slowly, trying to keep the awkwardness of the situation from her tone.

"Oh?" Gwen opened the mini-fridge in the corner, pulled out a bottle of iced tea, "You have a specific question?"

"Well this operation will take us some time to complete. Is there any specific timeframe for this?"

Gwen shrugged as she poured two tall glasses and dropped a pair of ice cubes in both. "I wouldn't know. Sweetwater hasn't said anything about it, so for now you have all the time you need."

"What if we need more support?"

"We don't have any units to spare for this, so you shouldn't call for support unless the survival of the ship is in jeopardy. If it does come to that, the Scarface will be standing by cover your retreat." She handed one glass to Naomi, and sipped her own in the pause. "Challenger will be patrolling nearby if you need a fallback point."

"I see." Naomi took a sip of the iced tea, then looked at the glass and squinted. "What'd you spike this with?"

"Vodka."

Naomi smiled slightly. "It's good."

"It's an old family recipe. Glad you like it."

The mention of it returned some of the awkwardness to the air, but at the same time it moved the conversation closer to the point of this visit. "Speaking of family," _No turning back now,_ She took a deep breath and stepped across the room to a chair at the desk next to the bed. Gwen sat down on the mattress across from her and took another long sip from the iced tea. "Have you had a chance to visit Anna's grave?"

Gwen shook her head sadly. "It's been twelve years since I've been to Granada. I'm still afraid to go back."

Naomi stared at her blankly, "Why?"

"You wouldn't understand... I know you used to think it was because of you, but that really has nothing to do with it."

"You're afraid of ghosts, Gwen?"

"Something like that." Gwen stared off into the distance, a memory surfacing from the back of her mind to manifest before her eyes, then to disappearing just as quickly as it came. "I came to Granada from Side 3 with my first husband. We were supposed to start a better life there, with all the new development and new construction... it was like a frontier city. Land of opportunity..."

"Bullshit. It was a wastebasket for the trash of mankind."

Gwen sighed, "Not at first. There was a time when the lunar cities were an urban paradise. The economy was booming, business was always good, the streets and the neighborhoods were safe. All that changed when Granada signed the treaty with Zeon."

"But why don't you go back?" Naomi asked again, "At least to visit Anna..."

"Bad memories." She looked up slowly, exploring Naomi's eyes, "You understand THAT don't you?"

Naomi nodded, starting to understand it better herself. Both sat in silence for a moment, sipping iced tea and letting the vodka do its work against their bloodstream until, at length, Naomi finally asked what she had come here to ask, "How did you find out about Dyson?"

Gwen stiffened at the question. Just thinking about it brought a twinge of anger in the corner of her heart. "Rico told me. Shortly after the Tarawa arrived."

She raised a brow. "Rico did?"

"In a little more detail than I would have preferred. Apparently he's not quite gotten over it himself."

That came as no surprise. Ever since the moment he came on board, Naomi had found the Lieutenant to his illustrious uncle's total opposite. On the other hand it still left a bit of a mystery as to just why Rico would have told her about it to begin with. "I need to ask you something... something I've been wanting to ask you for a long time."

Gwen could guess what the question was, and didn't wait for it to be asked. "The Doros was burning in space, the fleet was getting cut to pieces, my Gelgoog was loosing power. I heard you calling to me on the radio and I just..."

"But that wasn't the first time, Gwen." She took one last sip and drained the iced tea, then set the glass down on the desk and stood up in front of her. "You left me defenseless, expecting me to die. Not once, but TWICE. Why did you do it?"

Gwen stared at her feet and buried her face in her hands. "I wish I knew."

"Not good enough!" Naomi's fists tightened into a pair of cannon balls. "What in the hell could have possessed you to go and do something like that?! Why?! Tell me why!"

"Because I..." She looked up again, and tears were flowing down her cheeks. "I first came to Granada with my husband, my brother and two children... and one day something terrible happened, and just like that, they were gone. It left me so cold and dead inside... I swore to myself I would never care about anything that much as long as I lived..." She stood up slowly and put her hand on Naomi's shoulder, something that immediately made both of them tremble. "And then there was you. I caught myself getting so attached to you and Anna, and I started to feel safe again. I was afraid one day I would loose you just like I lost the others. I didn't want to feel that kind of pain again, so I ran away and didn't feel anything."

Naomi brushed her hand off her shoulder and stared at her, a growing expression of contempt on her face. "And did it work?"

Gwen shook her head. "I went back to being dead inside. I did a lot of different things to survive... some things I would rather you not know about. I wandered aimlessly for years looking for something to live for. And then I met Char Aznable, and... and he fixed me."

"Fixed you?"

"Some newtype trick. He made me whole again, and I stopped being afraid. That's when I tried to contact you. And then a few years later, I run into you at Abau-Aqu..." She could tell Naomi was only half interested in the explanation, but focusing more on the emotions she could see in her at this moment. Something about her scrutiny made her feel all the worse. "I can't ask you to forgive me. I know you never will."

Naomi nodded in agreement, yet somewhere from a forgotten corner of her soul a set of vestigial words boiled to her mouth, "I miss my mother." She said sadly.

Gwen slumped and sat back on the bed. "I do too."

"Can you bring her back?"

"What?" Gwen looked up in surprise and wiped the tears from her eyes, "Bring her back?"

Naomi nodded and knelt down in front of her. "They way I remember her. The way she used to be."

"If that's what you want then..." They sat in silence for a moment, then Gwen smiled softly. "I'll see what I can do."

_- June 5, UC 0084 -_  
_- 0820 hours (CST) -_  
It was a curious thing how a man could feel so heavy in a weightless environment. Admiral Carter felt the burden of four years of hard work all but wasted, dragging behind him like a ball and chain, one for each day he had spent on furthering the development of Project N. This had been his baby, his favorite pet project, the showcase of innovation and vision on which a hundred officers would make their careers and Carter would use as his stepping stone to early retirement. Now it was a sideshow curiosity.

He slumped against the door to his office, weighed down by a non-existent gravity that had his heart sagging in his chest. "So are we back to square one?" He muttered to himself as he slipped inside. The office lights were dimmed, his chair was turned half away from the desk as if waiting for him to sit in it along with an empty float cup sitting next to a steaming pot of hot coffee. He took the seat gladly and relaxed at last, but eyed the drink wearily, "Now how did you get here?" He said, eyeing the coffee pot suspiciously.

The monitor beeped as a page came to the office from the bridge and the Admiral tapped the flashing red light in the corner of the screen. "Carter here."

The ship's Executive Officer saluted on the monitor and gave his report, "We've made arrangements with a civilian merchantman in Side 2 to purchase the extra fuel we needed. Thanks to this blockade situation they're charging us an arm and a leg, but if we wait for the supply corp it'll take another six days at least."

Admiral Carter filled the float cup through a tub from the coffee pot and added cream and sugar. "Let ME worry about the merchants. Just put us into port and we'll make contact later."

"You think it's wise to deal with these civilians with the blockade going on?"

"I don't intend to pay their price, since you ask. Just put into port and I'll take it from there."

"Yes sir." The officer saluted again, then his image on the monitor snapped back into blackness. Carter slouched in his chair for a moment and rubbed his temples, then reached for the float cup where he had set it on the desk. An instant before his fingers closed around it, a second hand snatched it up from the desk and the arm attached to it brought the straw to a small mouth with an equally small face. "You don't use enough sugar." She said, turning a face in bitterness of the first sip.

Carter was no longer surprised with these intrusions, but he had not yet ceased to by annoyed with them. "Don't you ever knock?"

Nine took another sip of his coffee, then handed it back to him with another bitter expression. "I never ask permission for something I haven't done yet."

"Well if you always do whatever you want, asking permission is just a formality isn't it?"

"Exactly. It's easier to ask for something you already have... this way you have no arguments." Nine chuckled and drifted across the office to the far wall near the door. "I ran a few simulations with Lucifer."

Carter's mood shifted for the better. "Impressed?"

"Nope."

"What's wrong with it?"

Nine sighed and felt her way along the wall until she found a chair next to the bookshelf. "Everything about it feels less like a mobile armor and more like a battleship. It's fast in a straightaway, but it has no turn radius and it maneuvers like a pregnant cow." 

The Admiral shrugged. "With all that firepower and equipment you don't really need to maneuver that much. Besides, in it's mobile suit configuration it's plenty fast enough..."

"For a regular unit, maybe. But against a pilot with any kind of combat experience it's David and Goliath."

"Goliath didn't have an I-field." He sipped his coffee and thought it over; all at once he changed his mind. "Maybe this is the kind of thing Bosque was talking about?"

"If you mean building overpowered weapons that aren't worth a damn, you're right." Nine left her chair and felt along the wall again to get back to the door. "The only thing Lucifer's good for is sinking battleships. The only way it can hurt the mobile suits is by blasting the Tarawa into space dust. Naomi won't be so troublesome if that happens."

"I'll agree to that. Just as long as we're able to finish them off..."

"But YOU remember our agreement, Carter." Nine tapped the keypad and opened the door.

The Admiral found himself smirking at the entire arrangement. "I'm curious, Lieutenant. You want your eyesight restored more than your memories? I don't quite understand why that is."

She paused in the doorway for a long moment, staring blindly down the corridor in silent reflection before turning slowly and looking dead at him; the Admiral's blood ran cold from the intensity of her stare. "I know who I am, Carter, even if I don't remember who I used to be. My eyes are more useful than my memories." 

"You don't even care about your memories do you?"

She closed the door without another word and left him in solitude with a new troublesome revelation to contemplate. Naomi had been the way during her enrollment: despite the conditioning, she seemed barely if at all concerned with recovering memories of her past and her identity. In fact, from the moment she entered the program to the day her memories returned, her key motivation seemed to be some kind of hateful grudge against an unnamed third party—Admiral Dyson, as it turned out. The fact that Naomi had retained that motivation even after her memory was erased was troubling in light of Nine's statements, but it also spoke volumes to the nature of newtypes...

The book he needed was on the shelf, next to the very chair Nine had just been sitting in. He moved across his office and opened it to a page he had marked years ago as a curiosity, but in this time and place took on new significance. He read it silently as he returned to his desk, "_The soul of man is the combination of mind and spirit. The mind encompasses all worldly knowledge we accumulate in our lives, and in the spirit dwells the emotional currents shaped by our experiences. The ancients believed that the spirit is eternal, everlasting and transcendent to our physical bodies and the limitations of our minds—and there is truth in this. For in the absence of the mind, the spirit takes control."_

_- 1150 hours (CST) -_  
Ryo was in a pilot's paradise with the new mobile suit strapped to his shoulders. It was easily twice as fast as the Galbaldy, even more responsive than the Gundam. It's reflexes were much slower on the whole, but the sheer power of its verniers offset the disadvantage by an order of magnitude. If he closed his eyes, it almost felt like piloting a fighter. "You look like you're enjoying yourself," Rico said from the distance, still adjusting to his own mobile suit in much the same way.

"Damn right. This thing moves like a fireball."

Rico chuckled at a private joke, "The Gerbera Tetra holds a dozen speed records for any combat mobile suit, but..." He moved up alongside Ryo's suit and glared directly at him with his mono-eye, "It's a big-time gas guzzler."

At the mention of it, Ryo looked at his fuel gage and then growled loudly in annoyance. "Dammit, Rico, you're spoilin my fun!"

Mike laughed out loud as he moved up on the other side, straddling him between his and Rico's Galbaldy. "According to the specs, it's flight range is about 30 percent of a GM's, which is even lower than Alex's range. You can extend that with the Sturm Booster, but you have to jettison them when they're exhausted and we only have two spares for each of you."

"Unless we recover them..."

"Which isn't likely, especially considering the Gerbera Tetra was designed for hit-and-run missions."

Ryo reversed thrust and pulled away from his two companions, spinning the suit in a wide corkscrew just to get a better feel for its turn radius. He imagined himself surrounded by a host of enemy mobile suits and practiced shadow-boxing with the beam machinegun in his hand as he shot them down one-by-one in the battlefield of his mind. "I doubt they'll ever mass produce this freak."

"Not this one, but the technology in that unit is being refined for a new mobile suit. Anaheim doesn't have a prototype, but we've seen some of the schematics on it and it looks pretty nice."

Ryo paused in space and beamed at them in a tiny swell of excitement. "New Gundam model?"

Rico chuckled. "They look like Rickdoms only hard-core." 

"I'll hold my opinions until I see it in action." Ryo fired his thrusters straight up and raced away from them, scanning in space for any fragment of space debris to use for target practice. He spotted an asteroid in the distance, almost a hundred meters from end to end. "What's with this thing, again? Beam machinegun?"

Mike followed along as best he could as Ryo closed in on his prospective target. "It's something the Zeeks were playing around with in the One Year War. A couple of Gelgoog variants used em, but they had a few problems."

"What kinda problems?"

"Well you end up with a tradeoff of power vs. range. If you increase the net charge of the particles you get more range, but the particle density goes down so you get less power. If you up the density, each particle gets a smaller charge so it dissipates faster. If I'm not mistaken, your beam guns are configured for short range firing."

Ryo locked into the asteroid from this distance and held his position. "Well let's see..." He fired a long burst from the beam gun into the side of the asteroid, kicking up a spray of molten rock as the beams chopped up the face of it, then he held his fire and waited for the dust to clear. The face of the rock was scorched in dozens of places, but none of the beams had penetrated especially deeply. "That's not good."

"It's enough against a mobile suit, but for a battleship you have to get closer."

Ryo fired his thrusters again and closed the distance, this time to less than one kilometer and fired again with a long burst. This time the beams sliced right through the asteroid, chopping it to bits in seconds and sending the fragments spinning off into space in all directions.

Mike and Rico locked onto some of the smaller fragments and maneuvered as if avoiding enemy fire, blasting a rock here and there as they would an enemy mobile suit. They sparred with their imaginary targets for a few moments more, until another shot burst out from the darkness, crossed in front of all of them and shattered the largest rock in the thinning debris field. "Damn, Naomi tuned the hell outa this thing!" Lucy's voice was saturated with excitement. "No wonder she was so fond of this Gundam."

"It's been upgraded a dozen times since the war. Mainly just to keep up with the Commander."

Lucy moved the Gundam into the midst of them and stowed the beam rifle in her rear waist armor. "When I first met Commander Wilson I thought she was some stuck-up brat trying to usurp my mobile suit team. But when you see her in combat, it's really something."

Ryo checked his fuel gauge again and groaned at the readings. He turned and started back to the ship while the others followed just a dozen meters behind in a loose formation. "I always wonder about that, Lucy. You're five years older than her, yet she outranks you."

"Six years, actually. And the reason is simple: Naomi knows everything there is to know about mobile suit combat. Her Project N training is just that thorough."

"They didn't teach her how to read?" Mike said with a chuckle.

"She can read her instruments just fine, ss long as the computer doesn't give her any big words."

Normally he would have laughed at the comment, but for some reason Ryo found it a little less than humorous. "What do you think she would do if she had to leave the military?"

Lucy tried to imagine Naomi in a business pantsuit answering phones at some major corporation somewhere; somehow the image was as natural as a chimpanzee on bicycle. "Probably the same thing she did before she joined."

Rico chuckled. "She'd be impressive as a mercenary or some kinda gangster."

"Isn't that all the military is?" Mike quipped, "Gangsters with mobile suits?"

"You're thinking of the Titans, Mike." Lucy corrected gently, "And personally I couldn't see her as either of those. She's too idealistic."

Mike and Rico both laughed out loud. "We're thinking about the same Naomi, right?"

Ryo joined in on Lucy's behalf, "Commander Wilson wears her principles up her sleeve. They usually take a backseat to business... and Rico, you of all people know what kind of business I'm talking about."

"Don't remind me. I've got my own score to settle."

The veil of Minovsky particles thinned out and at last the Tarawa came through on the communication's channel. The new radio officer was an AEUG replacement, wise beyond her years but cursed with a voice that sounded much younger than she actually was. "Tarawa to Matsui team, Bay Two is clear. Lieutenant Izumi, set down in Bay One."

"Roger that." Ryo adjusted his angle towards the ship as the main door to the MS deck opened in front of him. He lined up the mobile suit along the laser track, closing on the ship at a standard speed for a hard landing to save fuel. The flight deck operator extended the catapult sled to the edge of the deck and a pair of flashing light between the footrests marked his target. Ryo made a few tiny adjustments with his verniers and his computer adjusted the feet and legs to lock perfectly onto the sled. The last few seconds before he touched down he fired his thrusters to reduce his speed, then the feet locked into the sled rode it's momentum the rest of the way into the mobile suit deck as the shock absorbers slowed it to a halt.

Captain Anderson watched the other three approaching the ship to land in the same way, a maneuver used to save time and fuel during extended operations like this one. Somehow he was impressed with how quickly his long-time friend had mastered such a tricky landing procedure, while the other three more experienced pilots landing behind him still had need of practice. "This will be an interesting operation." He muttered to himself, but loud enough for Naomi to hear him. "The crew's getting used to all the changes, I think."

"They're used to change. You have to be, in order to serve on the Tarawa. But I can't get used to the AEUG uniforms."

Brian smirked. "Is that why you're still in Feddy colors?"

"Partly. But with the lack of regulation in this fleet I'm thinking I might update my wardrobe."

Brian chuckled, "You know on the Merrimac, Captain Eisen would've tossed you in the brig for having your collar unbuttoned like that."

"Really?" Naomi fiddled with her shirt and undid the next one down from her collar, rolled her shoulders around and adjusted the fit, then smiled. "I feel better already." She turned back to the hatch to leave the bridge, floating across the room in a leisurely yet graceful spiral.

"Where're you off to now?" Brian said to her back.

"Pearson says I'm overdue for my next physical. I wanna get that out of the way before we get to Side 2." 

"I thought you hated Doctors?"

"You thought correctly!" She shouted as she disappeared into the corridor behind the bridge.

_-1220 hours (CST) -_  
Admiral Dyson glanced at his watch at the very same moment he heard someone knocking on the door on the other side. Dieter Cunningham was punctual as always. "It's unlocked. Come in."

The door slid open and the Major stepped inside, wearing his Titans uniform like a suit of armor. He looked much better in Titans black and red than in Zeon officer's colors. Respectable even, even despite the scruffy look of his hair and the eternal five-o'clock shadow that adorned his square-shaped face. "You wanted to see me, Admiral?" He said as officially as possible.

Dyson handed him a stack of papers and gestured for him to take a seat. "These are the stats on the Tarawa's pilots, their backgrounds and abilities."

Dieter thumbed through the reports and came immediately to the dossier and service records of Lieutenant Izumi and Brian Anderson. "I'm familiar with some of them. I fought against Izumi in the One Year War."

"Correction, you were shot down by Izumi in the One Year War. I've done my homework, Lieutenant."

Dieter smirked at the admiral. "So you have. Then you must also know the man wants me dead. Along with his numbskull sidekick, Anderson."

"Anderson comes from Zeon nobility. His problem with you is political. But this is beside the point... you have extensive experience with the two of them, don't you?"

Dieter looked up with renewed interest. "They were apair during the war. I fought against both of them at least a dozen times until Izumi shot me down at Abau-Aqu."

"Then you know that Izumi is an ace pilot with thirty one mobile suit kills, and that with the destruction of the Tarawa's bridge, it is likely that Lieutenant Anderson is now in command of that vessel."

Dieter raised a brow. "No sir, I was not aware of that."

"We're having enough trouble contending with that Commander Wilson without those two screwing things up. And it doesn't help that Carter is betting everything on those lunatic children he's bringing up in Project N..." Dyson paused for a moment and chuckled at a thought. "My boy Ricardo was right after all."

"About what?"

"It seems every time I pressure Commander Wilson she only becomes more rebellious. The spacenoids seem to be the same way."

Dieter shrugged. "That's exactly why Lord Gihren ordered theme exterminated. Proletarians have a knack for wasting valuable resources fighting the inevitable. Tarawa and her pilots are much more useful to the progress of mankind than they are for some lofty idealistic plan."

Admiral Dyson raised a brow. He had never figured Dieter to have an eye for this sort of thing, but then from the back of his mind came a reminder that this man had been heavily indoctrinated by the Zabi's fanatical contolist cult. "You mean to say I should have killed her when I had the chance."

"I mean to say you should have killed her the moment she dared to resist you."

"She ALWAYS resisted me. She didn't always want to though. She was a street urchin who sheltered in a mosque and picked pockets to make a living. To her, I represented the kind of power and authority she would never have, so she both admired me and resented me at the same time."

When the conversation began, Dieter had had a general idea as to what was being discussed; now he wasn't sure. "I take it you abused that power, at least in her eyes."

"To abuse a thing is to use it improperly. Power is only abused when a man refrains from using it. And little Naomi was within my power, so I took her."

Dieter felt a chill navigate his spine. "Took her?"

"I always get what I want, Lieutenant. And Naomi's is an attractive young woman. She has a kind of youthful charm, don't you think?"

Dieter suppressed the shaking of his hands. He forced himself to agree with the Admiral, despite the awkward twisting in his gut. "When did this happen? Recently?"

"No, it was a few days before the Federation embassy in Granada was destroyed. The war was already in progress, and I decided it was best to take action while I had the chance."

His hands persisted on shaking despite his best controls. He set the papers floating in the air next to him and folded his arms boldly. "So you didn't actually abuse your power... you abused HER."

"I told you, to abuse a thing is to use it improperly. Peons like Naomi Wilson are stepping stones for the powerful. Spacenoids are like that too, they were created so the elite would have something to stand on."

"Interesting thought, Admiral." He took the papers in hand and started for the door. "I have other business to take care of, but I'll get to these papers as soon as possible."

"Very well, Lieutenant." Dyson closed the door behind him, and Dieter made a beeline down the corridor, around a corner and down a ladder to his own quarters, slipped inside and closed the door behind him. The conversation he had just left was mind-numbingly familiar; it was Gihren Zabi, but in reverse. For years he had been taught that the spacenoid elite existed to dominate the evolutionary dead-end that was the Earthnoid race. He had lived almost his entire life with this belief, so strongly was it engraved in his mind that even now he tended to look at even Admiral Dyson as an inferior being. And yet the thing that had called him to the Titans—the kindred spirit of excellence that only the elite could possess—had led him to be commanded by a man that would abuse a child just for entertainment. 

His ideals faded to mist, the righteousness of his teachings evaporated, and the ideals of the "elite" began to sting his ears in an air of bitterness. Everything in his mind told him that the Admiral's actions were perfectly just: he had power, he used it, as was his right to do so. But his heart spoke another tale, of a man so drunk with power he would destroy even a thing of beauty if it suited him. Admiral Dyson was a symbol of the Titans.

And staring in the mirror, Dieter was confronted by an exhausted looking man with weary eyes, the black/red uniform and jackboots of the elite Titans forces. "I hope you're proud of yourself, Dieter." He said, speaking in honesty for the first time in nearly a decade. "Because we both know you're not."

_- 1325 hours (CST) -_  
"The test results show," Dr. Pearson said with a straight face, "Your ego has cancer."

"So I'm gonna die?" Naomi said with a raised eyebrow.

"Probably."

"How soon?"

"Depends. For mobile suit pilots, this kind of cancer can kill you almost instantly."

Naomi sighed and stared at her knees. "Is there a cure?"

"Nothing a good ass whooping wouldn't fix."

"That can be arranged... anything else?"

"Your blood sugar is low. You've been skipping meals again."

Naomi rolled her eyes at Pearson's almost fatherly nagging. "You see, this is why I hate doctors."

Pearson grinned. "I'm not all bad. Came through for you last time, didn't I?"

"Forgive me if I wasn't in a position to appreciate it at the time."

Pearson grinned wider. "I don't blame you. Anyway, we're almost done. Take off your shirt."

Naomi tossed the shirt across the exam room to drape across the back of a chair in the corner, then turned on the bed and sat up as straight as possible. Her back was a patchwork of jagged scars and old wounds. Pearson stepped up behind her and placed a stethoscope against her back; she flinched from the cold metal on her skin. "Why do you never warm that up first?"

Pearson took the plate up, rubbed it against his palm for a few moments and put it against her back again. "Better?"

"Thank you."

"Deep breath."

Naomi did as she was told, and three more times as Pearson listened from different spots along her back. After the fourth time, he couldn't help but loose himself in the memory of the scars on her back, and even the two hours of surgery to remove from her shoulder blade the weapon that had put them there. "Do these still hurt?" He brushed one of the deeper ones with his finger.

"Only up here." She tapped her temple with her finger.

Pearson nodded in understanding. "Well your lungs are healthy, but your heartbeat is slower than it was last time."

"Funny you should mention that."

Pearson stepped across the exam room and tossed her shirt back to her. "Something wrong?"

She hesitated to continue, but given that Dr. Pearson was about the closest thing on the ship she had to a confidant she decided it was better to let him in on it. "Can you keep a secret?"

Pearson chuckled. "Remember who you're talking to."

"Right... Um, Doc..." She looked up into his eyes with a kind of sad desperation that almost melted his heart, "Well one of the junior officers, a mechanic... she has sort of a problem."

Pearson folded his arms. "Go on."

"She says she's gotten sort of involved with one of the other mechanics, but after the fight with the Titans the guy got promoted so he's her superior officer. It's okay now, because the AEUG doesn't have strict regulations against this sort of thing, but... well..." She hesitated again and her cheeks started to flush.

"I'm listening."

"Well the problem is there's another officer from the same unit, and... uh... well they're really good friends but... but... she's kinda falling for him."

Pearson raised a brow. "Really?"

"Yeah. But you see the real problem is that other officer is uh... is kinda her superior's brother..."

"Uh huh,"

Naomi began sub-consciously wringing her hands in a dance of nervous energy, "You ever been in a situation like this?"

Pearson shook his head anxiously. "Can't say that I have. And might I say, this is a little out of character for you... er... for a mechanic I mean."

"No shit. And I have no idea what to do about it."

He gave it a few moment's thought, and from the position he was in he had only one piece of advice to give. "Well your mechanic friend has had her eye on that Lieutenant for a long time, even back before the war. He was her inspiration for joining the military in the first place. It's only natural that meeting him in person, she would feel this way."

"But is that a good thing, or is it just some conceited hero worship?"

Pearson thought for a moment, then smiled at a bit of his own experience, "My wife used to consider me HER personal hero, but that was a little different. I guess it depends on the person."

"But what if...?"

"Dammit, Naomi, I'm a doctor not a guidance counselor! Follow your heart, it'll work out for the best."

Naomi nodded, and buttoned her shirt up to just below top button and nodded. "Anyways, thanks for listening."

"No problem." Pearson watched her leave the exam room, then leaned against the wall and chuckled in amusement. _I guess I'm her acting father-figure until Captain Shiden recovers._

_- June 6, UC 0084 -_  
_- 1830 hours (CST) -_ Even though she couldn't see the colony, the sounds of the people and animals moving about was soothing in its own way. She could feel the rotation of the cylinder and she knew exactly which way she was facing and where she was. The cane in her right hand tested every step of her path, the sidewalk beneath her feet along the edge of the a forest area filled with animals. The air smelled charged as if at any moment it might start to rain; if Nine could see she would have noticed a sky filled with storm clouds.

Even so, she stuck by her decision. With Dogos Gaia in port, sneaking off the ship had been all too easy, and to be out in fresh air and out of the starched Titans uniform for the first time in who knew how long felt like a kind of blessing from above.

Somewhere behind her, she heard the screech of an eagle is if passed overhead. Even in a sightless would she could tell where it was; when she focused on it enough she could sense it's presence, track it's movement in the sky as it circled the forest in search of food. It was a fabulous bird, even without looking at it. "I wish I could do that..." She muttered to herself as she walked, "I wish I could fly away..."

She stopped on her path, startled as a raindrop bounced off her nose, then again as another one hit her ear and three more on the top of her head. She looked up to the sky as if pleading for a few more minutes; the sky answered her with a sudden torrential downpour that left her immediately soaked. _Typical. _She opened her mouth and caught some of the rain on her tongue, slicked her hair back in the water and went on her way without a complaint. _ This feels like a memory resurfacing,_ she thought warmly, _I've always loved the rain._

A few blocks down the sidewalk on her trek she encountered another familiar feeling, but this one was much harder to trace. She sensed it nearby, but couldn't understand it any more than she could see it with her eyes. "I wonder if I've ever been here before?" She thought out loud, "This feels like..."

"Excuse me ma'am," Someone shouted from behind her, "Do you need help with something?"

Nine turned around slowly and listened for the sound of footsteps on the wet sidewalk. Someone was running towards her from half a block away, and as he came closer she heard the patter of raindrops against his umbrella. There was something non-threatening about him, a friendly air she found as comfortable as the light from the sun. From the sound of his voice she guessed he was close to her age, but he was at least a head taller. "I'm a little lost." She said with a friendly smile, "I'm not from this colony."

He glanced at the white stick in her hand and sunglasses and understood immediately. "Where are you trying to get to?"

"Nowhere really, I was just out for a walk."

"Nobody told you it was gonna rain?"

Nine shrugged innocently. "I don't have a TV where I live."

He took her by the hand and guided her under the cover of his umbrella, then carefully reached up and took off her sunglasses and dried them on his shirt. "This is a pretty safe colony, but I'm not sure you wanna be wandering off on your..." He stopped in mid motion and stared at her for a long moment, his jaw falling open in surprise, "Alice?"

Nine's heart skipped a beat. "Excuse me?"

He stared at her for a moment longer, then smiled in elation, "Alice, it IS you! Oh man, I'm sorry! I didn't even recognize you!"

Nine took her sunglasses back, her comfort with this stranger turning into nervous anxiety. "Have we met before?"

"Are you kidding?! You used to come over to my house every Friday and my mom would tutor you with your social studies class."

Nine's brain drilled at the wall of emptiness surrounding her memories again, and for the thousandth time she came up with nothing. There was truth in his voice, he believed what he said, but whether or not he actually knew her was another question entirely. "I'm sorry... I..."

"You really don't remember?"

Nine shook her head sadly. "I don't remember anything. I don't even know my name."

From the tone of his voice she could tell he was drawing on some conclusions. "Oh... I'm sorry to hear that... I'm Alfred, Alfred Izuruha. We used to hang out in in Side 6 together before... well, I guess before what happened to you." He paused for a moment and pressed on awkwardly, "Did anyone tell you what happened? We all heard it on the news, but there weren't any details."

Nine shrugged distantly. "All I know is that there was an accident a few months ago and a Titans ship recovered me from space. Nobody knows who my family is, or where I came from..."

"A few months ago... yeah that's right." Alfred slid all the dates back into place, "It was all over the news, they said the Merrimac was destroyed by a terrorist attack. We all thought you were dead, we had a memorial for you and everything!"

The name wreaked of familiarity. "Merrimac?"

"You moved to the Merrimac on refugee status two years ago. You probably don't remember." 

Nine shook her head again. "Well if that was my ship... well what did they say on TV?"

Alfred took her hand and started walking along the sidewalk again with her following along under the umbrella with him, "Well the Merrimac was assigned to escort duty on a Feddy carrier, and one day in battle it got destroyed by terrorists."

"Which carrier?"

"The Tarawa. One of the old Pegasus from the Midway series."

Nine stopped on the sidewalk and stiffened up. There was no longer any doubt that he knew her from before the incident, but now her mind was filled with an entirely new host of doubts. "Merrimac escorted the Tarawa?"

Alfred pulled her back under the umbrella. "Yeah. Of course I read in Angler the other day that the Tarawa's gone renegade. They said it has something to do with a Titans secret weapon but nobody knows the details... and it's too bad too. Maybe someone onboard knows what happened to your family?"

Nine sighed. Even classified information wasn't classified anymore. "So you used to know me on Side 6?"

Alfred nodded, but after a moment remembered himself and said aloud, "Yeah. We moved away though, right before the Titans invaded it."

"What was I like back then?"

Alfred smiled at the fondness of memories. "You were really cool. You used to come to our football games even though you couldn't see anything. And you and your brother used to sled down the big hill on the West Block every Christmas..." Alfred paused for a moment at the memories that same hill brought back, "It's a shame you don't remember anything. You're the only other person I ever told about my friend Bernie."

"That Zeon pilot?"

"Yeah, that's the..." Alfred stopped and stared at her in surprise, and in the same moment Nine stopped and rubbed her temples in frustration. "You... okay?"

"My head hurts." Even as she said it the pain started to intensify to a steady throbbing. There was a whisper in the back of her mind to go with it, but the words it spoke were not yet audible. "Do we have a place we can sit down?"

Alfred took her hand again and guided her across the street towards the town. "C'mon, I'll take you to my house. We'll make you something to eat."


	24. Chapter 23: Hit and Run

How often in history have we seen the forked tongue of a leader, coming in the name of peace and justice, speaking the words of saints and the promises of peace, only to rain death upon the heads of the very people he comes to liberate? People never forget a betrayal, nor do they ever forget the face that commits it. Often times their retribution far outweighs the severity of the original offense-- as a warning to those who come after that a people united will never accept an oppressor._  
- Lieutenant Commander Anaval Gato  
- Interview with Angler Publications, January 1, UC 0083_  


* * *

**Chapter 23: Hit and Run**

_- June 7, UC 0084 -  
- 0420 hours (CST) -  
_The lights in the briefing room were dimmed to half level and all eyes were focused on the main display screen next to Commander Wilson as she walked them through the mission with a laser pointer, "It wouldn't be wise at this point to try and attack the Dogos Gaia while she's in port. The potential for damage to the colony is much too great, and the Titans may punish Side 2 for it. On the other hand, this gives us a little bit of an advantage, since the Agamemnon and the support fleet is still nearby maintaining the blockade."

Vanessa looked at the display in confusion, a chart showing the positions of the Side 2 colonies and the Titans and Federation vessels, "They're still in patrol formation, they're not even joining the blockade line."

"Good observation. They're not at all interested in the blockade, they're mainly just waiting for us."

"Then aren't we walking into a trap?"

Naomi grinned. "As a matter of fact, we are."

A few of the pilots stirred uneasily throughout the briefing room, "They'll be expecting us, then?" Ryo asked timidly.

"They should be. But the main point of this operation is to test their defenses. And if the Titans are hanging the Agamemnon out as bait, we need to find out what they're using as a snare."

Mike thought for a moment, going through his memory of previous missions for comparison, "Three cruisers and an assault carrier, plus the Agamemnon's compliment. That's about the usual odds, isn't it?"

Lucy chuckled. "We're outnumbered three to one. That's actually better than usual."

"And that's just at a glance." Naomi continued. "We're splitting up into two teams for this mission. Lucy will take Mike and Ricardo and the Adelaide's GM squadron to this sector here," She highlighted the area with the pointer, "You'll find a Megallan class battleship and two Salamis cruisers with the blockade fleet. Launch a diversionary attack, and stir up as much of a ruckus as you can. At the same time, the rest of the mobile suits will be standing by over here," She pointed to the Agamemnon's position, "Duncan and Vanessa will hang back in this asteroid field here, the rest of the strike force will attack from below. As soon as the Titans mobile suits are away, we'll attack with full force and draw away the rest of their mobile suit defenses. Vanessa can take it from there."

The two Marquise pilots both surged up in surprise, and Vanessa almost seemed offended by the idea, "You're using ME as the main force?!"

"Long-range attacks are your specialty, Lieutenant, are they not?"

"Yeah, but..."

"You're not crucial to the mission, Vanessa, but if you can score at least one good hit against the Agamemnon or the support fleet, it'll save us a lot of trouble when we do go after the Dogos Gaia."

Duncan growled a complaint, "Meanwhile we're sitting ducks if their patrols catch us."

"It's a hit and run mission." Naomi shut off the display screen and the lights turned back up to normal. "If you're discovered by the enemy, or when your capacitor runs out, the mission is over. If you get into too much trouble, call for a rendezvous with the main force and we'll both retreat together."

Duncan still wasn't satisfied. "Hanging us out to dry, is that it?"

"Shut up, Deuce." Vanessa shoved him back into his seat and nodded at Naomi apologetically. "It's a good plan, Commander, but there's a contingency I don't think we've covered."

Naomi was already a full step ahead of her. "If the Flash Gundam shows up, Lieutenant Izumi and myself will handle it. If it comes after you first, don't risk trying to engage it, just get the hell out of dodge while you can."

Keeping with the subject, Lieutenant Dyson had a similar question, "And what if WE run into it? We retreat as well?"

She had been afraid he would ask a question like that. "Lucy can keep it distracted while the rest of you press the attack. And for the record, even though this is a diversionary attack, you should consider this to be nothing short of a direct assault. Inflict as much damage as possible before we send up the retreat signal." She paused for a moment and glanced around the room, "Any more questions?" No one answered, and Naomi folded her arms and smiled. "Then get your mobile suits ready. We launch in one hour."

All of them stood up and saluted, then all departed the briefing room and marched off towards their respective MS decks to start the preparations for the mission. Naomi fell in behind them on the way to her own mobile suit, but just as she reached the door she felt someone tug her elbow. She didn't look up; she already knew who it was, and she also knew what he wanted her for. "Not now, Brian. I don't have the time."

"I just need to know something. You can spare a minute, can't you?"

She turned slowly and stared at him, silently dreading this conversation as she had been for some time. "What do you want to know?"

"Carter's new pilot," He started off awkwardly, but slowly gained confidence, "The one called "Nine Murasame..."

"You've been reading the intelligence reports, I gather."

Brian nodded. "I feel as though I'm being left out of the loop or something. You and Ryo both have this big secret, and I..."

"You don't need to know right now. It wouldn't do any good." 

She turned and started for the door again, but Brian caught her and pulled her back. "You saw her, didn't you?" He said at last, skipping through any more banter to the point of the conversation.

Naomi sighed. "Saw who?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Just tell me, Naomi, please. Who is Nine Murasame?"

"She is..." She looked up for his face and searched for something that might make it easier; there was nothing in his eyes but a longing to know for sure. "You don't need me to answer that, you already know."

Brian nodded slowly; Naomi gathered he had already suspected that. "You yourself came out of Project N after all that, so I'm certain there's a way to bring her back..."

"I don't think you understand what's happened to her." Naomi leaned against the wall and folded her arms across her stomach, "The effects of the conditioning are irreversible. Even if you can restore her memory, elements of her conditioning will remain. She'll never quite be the same."

Brian nodded again. "You know what it's like to have to protect someone, even if that person doesn't want to be protected. Whatever else she's become, she's still my baby sister..."

"But that's all gone, now." Naomi stepped away from the wall and poised herself in front of the doorway, a signal that she wished to end this conversation. "I told you, the conditioning is irreversible. She's not a child anymore, and she never will be again. From now on, until the day she dies, she will always be a living weapon."

"That's not true... I have to believe there's a way to bring her back."

"There isn't one. And there's nothing we can do to help her." She tapped the panel on the door and stepped into the hallway. "There's only one person who can bring Alice back, and her name is Nine Murasame." 

Brian flinched at the remark. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Naomi closed the door without answering, and started down the corridor to her mobile suit. She could already sense him starting to pull away from her, back into himself and the old call of a family obligation he had imposed on himself. She was perfectly content to leave him to his motivations for as long as he liked.

And this time she knew why. "Izumi," She called across the hangar deck as she passed through the airlock.

Ryo poked his head out of the cockpit, "What's up?"

She pushed off the deck and rose up to his mobile suit, pausing in front of the hatch to his cockpit, "Late last night, we got a communiqué from an informant in Side 2, going by the codename "Brother Bernie." He says he might have some information about Alice."

Ryo turned slowly, suddenly more interested. "Does he now? You got something in mind?"

"As a matter of fact I do. Something VERY special, you'll see..."

_- June 6, UC 0084 -  
- 1930 hours (CST) -_  
The smell of hot food on her plate and a room lacking in hostility filled her with a bizarre, awkward feeling. Everything about these people was friendly and welcoming; they had invited her into their home, shared their table with her, even offered her dry clothes and a bed to stay the night if she wanted. Everything about the Izuruha family was peaceful and benign. And everything about them was wrong. The old instincts were growing restless in her stomach, the programming of a combat system a dozen miles away reminding her of who and what she was. There were no enemies nearby, but somehow the absence of an immediate threat filled her with dread.

Mr. Izuruha picked up on this before any of the others, but put his questions cautiously hoping not to spook her, "What's wrong, Alice?" He said in as warm a tone as he could manage, "Loose your appetite?"

Nine shook her head slowly. "Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind." She searched the area next to the plate and found a fork, timidly poked at what she quickly identified as a bowl of ramen noodles. Her stomach did a tiny leap for joy.

Mrs. Izuruha made a sound like a combination of pity and friendship; she reached over slowly and patted Nine on the shoulder. "I hope we're not making you uncomfortable or anything."

"It's not your fault. I'm never comfortable."

"I don't blame you. You've lost all your memories of the past... you must have trouble sorting things out sometimes."

Nine's rumbling stomach overwhelmed her awkward shyness and she quickly scooped up a mass of noodles, shoveled it, and went on with the conversation almost without a break in the action, "Sometimes I do, but it helps to keep busy. This is the first time since the accident I've had any time to myself without having to work."

"Work?" All three of them asked at once, all in a collective expression of disbelief.

Nine shrank away from them nervously. "I... uh... I'm with this experimental program run by the government. Medical research and things like that."

"Oh! I guess that's only natural..." Mrs. Izuruha gave a friendly smile and all three of them went back to eating. Nine gave off a sigh of relief.

Alfred had been quiet since the moment she came inside the house, but now he found a break in the conversation enough to add his own voice to the discussion. "So you really don't remember anything at all?"

Nine shook her head again. "Bits and pieces only, but nothing that can tell me anything."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

In a reflex action, Nine's hands opened and closed as if clenching around the controls of a mobile suit. "I just remember calling out to someone but... I don't remember who... I guess whatever happened was bad enough that I lost my eyesight in the process."

Alfred grunted in confusion. "What do you mean? You were always blind."

If Nine could have seen him now she would have stared a hole in his chest. "I was? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. You told me once it's cuz of something that happened to you when you were a baby. But you never told anyone the details."

Nine sagged and turned all of her attention onto the food on her plate. "I see."

"Did the doctors tell you it had something to do with the accident?"

"Yeah. And one doctor in particular just earned an ass whooping."

Mrs. Izuruha sighed and leaned back in her chair. "She hasn't changed at all."

"Must be genetic." Mr. Izuruha chuckled, serving out seconds to the empty plates around the tables.

Evening turned into night; after dinner, Mr. Izuruha retreated off to his office finish paperwork for the Colony Corporation while the Mrs. left the house on the usually nightly errands. Out of the spotlight of his parents' attention for the millionth time, Alfred took Nine by the hand and led her up the stairs to the guest room at the end of the hall, right next to his parents' bedroom. "The couch in there unfolds into a bed, so you can sleep there if you want to spend the night."

Nine shrugged nervously. "I don't wanna be a bother."

"You're not, really. Dad practically lives in his office, and Mom sneaks out all the time to see her boyfriend so nobody will even know you're here."

Nine raised a brow. "You seem kinda detached from the whole thing."

Alfred pulled the cushions off the bed and unfolded the oversized mattress until it filled half the room, leaving just enough space for the shelves and the TV in the corner. "Yeah, well neither of them care, so why should I? It only pisses me off when they start fighting and drag ME into the middle of it."

"I guess it's understandable." As soon as Nine's body hit the bed, every muscle in her body released a month's worth of stored up tension. She hadn't realized until exactly that moment how tired she actually was. "Tell me something, Alfred," She leaned back on the bed and set her head on the pillow, "Were we really close friends back in Side 6?"

Alfred shrugged. "Not real close. I didn't used to hang out with that many girls back then. But, on the other hand..." He hesitated to go on, but given that she couldn't remember anyway he decided there was no harm in it. "I kinda had a crush on you."

Nine sat up again, a little surprised. "Did you?"

"It was kind of a puppy thing. My friend Chay took a picture of you with your swimsuit on and I thought you were pretty."

She chuckled playfully and fell back on the pillow, feeling a days worth of fatigue finally catching up with her. "I feel like taking a nap... can I trust you not to molest me in my sleep or something?"

Alfred laughed out loud. "I won't, but I can't speak for my dad."

She laughed again and curled up on the bed with a smile. "Thanks Alfred, really."

"No problem. I'll wake you up in two hours, how does that sound?"

"Fine. Thanks."

He left the guestroom and closed the door behind him, locking it from her side so no one else would be able to get in. He didn't wait even for a moment; he went straight to his room, out the window and across the roof, climbed down the gutter pipe to the backyard and across the lawn to the old tool shed at the neighbor's house. The door to the shed was padlocked, and only one other person knew the combination to it.

Once inside, he closed the door again and locked it from the inside with a deadbolt. A flip of a switch turned on the only light bulb, in the shed, another switch turned on the bank of computer and radio equipment arranged on the workbench in front of a computer chair. There was a note on one of the monitors from Bernard saying that he had already filled out the reports for the day, and Alfred made a mental note to thank him for filling in again. But right now he had more urgent matters to attend.

The largest monitor in the center keyed to life when he punched in his password, and a box opened in the corner prompting him to enter his message. Alfred took a moment or two to considering his wording, then typed the message into the box with the usual encryptions: _"Brother Bernie, signal to CT-1702-- Have contacted non-commissioned Titans officer in Bunch 13, Side 2. She identifies herself as Nine Murasame, and has markings and tattoos consistent with a Titans special unit. May be connected to Project N... please forward to the appropriate party and respond immediately."_ He flagged the message as "urgent" and dispatched it across cyberspace, direct to the home offices of his friends in Angler Publications, straight to the dispatcher screens in the editor's office whose job it was to process incoming information and decide what to do with it. Normally the message would end up in the Editor's office at Angler's Granada headquarters, but lately any information coming out of Side 2 was being forwarded straight to an AEUG unit to support some big operation nearby. Project N was a secret so dangerous even Angler didn't dare reveal it to the public, but if his suspicions were correct, and his old friend had been taken into their ranks...

This time it only took a few minutes for the response to come through, something he had not expected, but since it was broadcast in real time he knew that an AEUG troop was somewhere nearby. The message: _"Empty Nest, signal to Brother Bernie-- Message received. Please take care of her. Be advised that any information you can provide will help us to bring her back. Expect further communication within the next 48 hours."_ The cryptic nature of the message was a bit unnerving, but it was nothing he wasn't used to. He read between the lines and knew what to expect: an AEUG troop was indeed very nearby, and probably drawn to this area for that very same reason. He wished for a moment he could help them in some way other than a mere newsroom's mole passing information to the colonial underground. 

It couldn't be helped. Years ago he had helped his best friend restore a shot-down Zeon mobile suit for a duel against a Federation prototype in a desperate—but utterly futile attempt to save their home colony from devastation. He had watched from the sidelines as his two best friends battled in the foothills of Libot colony, and watched in horror as the Gundam delivered the death blow to what was left of Bernie's Zaku. The problem then had been poor intelligence; a pointless battle between two friends for a non-existent cause that could only end with one or both of their deaths. "We'll get it right this time, Bernie." He muttered to himself, thinking out loud. "This time they'll have all the information they need. There won't be any more pointless deaths."

_  
- June 7, UC 0084 -_  
_- 0700 hours (CST) -_  
Side 2 space was a tapestry of stillness against an unwavering starscape. The sun was setting behind the Earth and every object in the heavens was quickly falling into shadow. A flashing light on Naomi's monitor gave the warning: the mobile suit teams were now approaching the Side 2 perimeter. The dual importance of this mission was not lost on any of them; during the operation, the Tarawa would be able to slip through the chaos into the cover colony wreckage. "Coming up on the first waypoint. All units, break formation and proceed to target points."

"Roger that. Second unit, let's get a move on." Lucy broke away first; the Gundam Alex, two Galbaldys and four GM-II's rolling off on an entirely new course and disappearing into the darkness after just a few moments. Duncan and Vanessa followed suit, moving well ahead of the regular attack group and closing in on the Titans fleet from a different angle. Once everyone was in position, the waiting game was about to begin. 

"There's a debris field not far from their fleet we can use for cover." Naomi punched up a chart of the area and zoomed in on it. "It'll be heavily patrolled, so we'll have to go in very carefully."

Ryo called up the same chart and examined it carefully. "What happens if we run into those patrols?"

"Destroy it before it sees you. Otherwise we're screwed."

"I hate missions like this."

Naomi sighed. "Kinda makes you miss the good old days of the One Year Hell, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, right." Both of the Gerbera Tetra's adjusted course to make the intercept and the four GMs followed along. They still couldn't see the Titans on their monitors, but the last intelligence reports from the recon units had already confirmed their position. Any word and support from the local underground?"

"Nada. They're afraid the Titans will attack their colonies so their mobile suits have ceased operations."

"That means the blockade will have more effectiveness."

Naomi nodded. "They're only here to intimidate the colonies. Sometimes I really wonder if..." Something flashed on her motion sensors and she locked the main camera onto it, zoomed in to maximum resolution and grimaced at the image. The Titans fleet was not where it was supposed to be. "Damn. They're already too deep into Side 2."

"I see em... They're not where they're supposed to be." Ryo plotted their new position on the charts and searched the area for anything useful. There was nothing nearby that immediately struck his eye, but when he closed the chart again he saw their blessing in the distance, "At 2 o'clock high, moonward. You see it?"

Naomi scanned that area and spotted it almost immediately. Even at first glace it looked like a warship, but with a closer image she could see it to be the wreckage of a Zeon Papua class transport vessel. It was a good distance from the Titans fleet, but it was almost directly in their path of movement. "Bingo. Let's duck in behind there and wait for them to pass."

******

"I'm not the kinda guy who likes to waste time. Let's do this short and sweet." Rico locked into the first mobile suit in the distance, checked his aim and fired off the beam rifle. The shot came nowhere close to a hit.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Take your time, Rico. You're jumpin the gun." A heat source flashed into existence in front of them and Mike dodged slightly to the left as the two Hizacks returned fire. "Here they come."

Lucy powered up her beam rifle and selected her first target. "GM unit, circle around these two cannon fodders and get to the primary target. We'll be right behind you."

All four of their GMs responded and split in both directions, two to each side, in a wishbone maneuver that would take them directly around the Federation patrol unit. Lucy tried to imagine the panic on the bridge of the battleship once they understood what they were up against. "Can we please not waste time with these two?"

"Whatever happened to 'take your time, Rico'?" He locked into the same Hizack and fired off three quick blasts from the beam rifle; the Hizack dodged all three, but a shot from Mike's beam rifle sliced through the torso and the suit erupted in a mass of flame. "Dammit, that was my kill!"

"You lost it when you shot too early." Lucy locked into the other suit even as it started to retreat back to the battleship. She could sense the panic radiating from its pilot. "Must be a rookie..." A single shot from the beam rifle claimed the second Hizack, and all three of them charged through to the two Federation ships in the blockade line. A quick scan of both of them and Lucy had their numbers. "Targets sighted. Battleship Lexington to the front, cruiser Sedona right behind it with an unidentified destroyer... where's the other cruiser?" The gunners on the Lexington chose this exact moment to greet their new arrivals; from this distance the ship was a spec among stars, but the main gun turrets all opened fire in a massed barrage all the same. It was too far scattered to make a difference. "Mike, Rico, we'll attack from above. GM unit, come in from underneath where the defenses are weaker."

The mobile suits charged in from both directions, rising above and below the ship as mega particle cannons probed space around them looking for a hit. The outlines of the warship were finally visible, and as they got closer the smaller point-defense turrets along the flanks began filling space with machinegun fire. "They're just trying to keep us at a distance. Hold your fire until you get closer."

Mike checked the range on his computer; the ship was still four kilometers away by now, but the range was dropping off extremely quickly. "Closing in... where the hell are the other mobile suits?"

One of the GM pilots answered for him, "They're just now launching from the battleship. There are three Hizacks and one Guncannon."

Lucy watched the range tick off as the salvo from the battleship became more concentrated. 2500 meters... then 2000, then 1500... a spread of missiles erupted from the battleship's launchers and arced upwards towards them. Lucy threw her legs forward and slowed her approach, then locked into the battleship and fired off five quick blasts from the beam rifle. Two of them scored direct hits, one hitting just aft of the upper bow turret and the other striking the deck just forward of the bridge. Both beams split the hull wide open and sent a fireball erupting from deep within the ship, knocking it into a half spin as Mike and Rico's beam rifles opened fire and tore into it as well.

A thousand meters behind the battleship, the cruiser Sedona's mobile suits raced down the catapult line and into space to meet the sudden enemy attack. Lieutenant Gardner's GM was in the lead, Sullivan was right behind him along with the other two GMs and four RB-79 battlepods. Almost as soon as they approached the battleship, another beam from the attacking mobile suits punched through the top of the bridge, burrowed directly through the hull before finally punching out again through the keel of the ship. A fireball erupted in the center of the Lexington's hull, and then a powerful explosion snapped the ship in two. "Damn, they've already got the Lex! These aint the normal mercenary groups..."

Sullivan's radio exploded in his ears, "Enemy sighted! Above us! Two Galbaldy's and a GM!"

Gardner locked into the targets and stared in disbelief. "That's no GM... Sedona, call for reinforcements from that Titans unit! Tell them the enemy troops is lead by a Gundam class mobile suit!" As soon as he sent the warning a single blast from a beam rifle zipped past his head, missing his armor by only two meters before striking one of the GMs behind him and slicing straight through it's torso above the cockpit. The suit exploded behind him, and all three of the Sedona's mobile suits returned fire at once.

******

"Fourth Team, moving out! Time to avenge old Chap!" Bate kicked in the afterburners on Hizack-Custom and the catapult fired a moment later, flinging his mobile suit into space on a beeline to the Sedona's position. Monsha and Osborne launched right behind him, followed by four more Hizacks and a GM squad from one of the cruisers. Eleven mobile suits raced away from the Titans fleet towards the source of the Sedona's distress beacon, all at maximum thrust and not even looking back for a moment.

Naomi almost laughed out loud. Concealed her behind the wreckage of the Zeon transport, their window of opportunity seemed to be opening wide for them. "They're taking the bait. Everything's going according to plan."

Ryo's computer beeped as a burst transmission registered, "Lucy and Duncan are in position. Not a moment too soon either." He watched as the Titans mobile suits disappeared into the distance, their radar signatures fading to nothing as the Minovsky particles swallowed them up. He took another moment to scan the Titans fleet, and then felt a sudden pulse of frustration. "That assault carrier's not launching her mobile suits."

Naomi adjusted her position behind the shipwreck and looked for herself. The launch doors of the carrier were open, but none of the mobile suits had departed yet. "Dan, check the IFF signal. What ship is that?"

The leader of the Brisbane's GM unit ran the transponder and had his response after only a moment. "The Thoroughbred. Captain E.G. Walters commanding."

Naomi thought for a few moments for a reference in memory, _Thoroughbred... I know that ship from somewhere..._

"That explains everything." Ryo said cynically. "Thoroughbred is an advanced unit. There's some kind of ace there who pilots a supped-up Gundam model."

"More powerful than Alex?"

"Not originally, but it has been upgraded since then."

She weighed her options and the risks. Vanessa and Duncan were still standing by in the debris field, so if the Gundam came out to challenge them at the very least they would be able to draw them away so the snipers could do their work. "What's the distance on their other mobile suits?"

"Already out of range."

"Then let's go for it. Primary target is 40 kilometers distance. Break concealment on my signal." She charged up her beam rifle and switched her flight computer to combat mode. Everything was ready, even the four GMs behind her were poised to pounce on the Titans fleet. _Let's see what thisnew model's really worth..._ "Charge!!"

******

Sullivan fired off a dozen blasts from the beam gun as he backed away, but the Gundam seemed completely un-phased by his attacks and closed in all the same. A return fire from the beam rifle sliced through his shield and ripped it from his hand, a second shot hit his shoulder armor before he could dodge the attack. "Mike, I'm in deep...!"

"Break left Sully!" Gardner's mobile suit approached from his right side and fired off a single well-aimed shot from the beam gun. 

Lucy was forced to stop her attack to dodge the shot, at the same moment taking time to admire the pilot who fired it. _This one has potential._

"We just have to keep them off the Sedona! Watch your back, Sully!"

Gardner locked into the Gundam again and fired twice more, but at least three separate beam rifles joined him and sent the mobile suit spinning in space to avoid fire from all of them. Gardner glanced over his shoulder and spotted the three of them as they approached, "Never thought I'd be so happy to see a Titans mobile suit..."

Bate and Osborne locked on and fired blast after blast, Lucy dodged their fire with ease and fell back out of range to adjust to the change in circumstances. Monsha moved up next to Gardner and placed his hand on the GM's shoulder, "Cover the Sedona while it retreats. We'll take care of that Gundam."

"Right." Gardner and Sullivan pulled back towards the cruiser, but even as they did they saw their ship had already sustained a good deal of damage from the enemy attacks. The destroyer alongside it was already a flaming wreck, the bazooka rounds from the attacking GMs having blown away entire sections of its hull, while the Sedona itself was swarmed by a pair of Galbaldy's sinking beam rifles into its hull even as the new arrivals from the Titans moved in to drive them away. For a moment he was hopeful that the reinforcements would turn the tide of the battle, but in that same instant one of the Galbaldy's whirled around and fired a single shot into open space, catching a Hizack by surprise and destroying it where it stood. The other suit fired a pair of missiles from its shield and the Sedona's starboard gun turret exploded on its mounting. And now the Three GMs were closing in as well. "Sully...!"

"I see them. We got our work cut out for us, so let's get to it!" Sully charged in at full thrust, leading with the beam gun and a beam saber in his free hand. Gardner charged in alongside and both opened fire as they drew near to Rico and Mike's mobile suits.

******

Ryo rolled hard over to the left and reversed thrusters to maximum. The acceleration slammed him against the harness with enough force to compress his lungs, but the maneuver cut his velocity to nothing and the Hizack zipped past underneath him, it's machineguns firing into open space. He quickly locked on and fired a quick burst from the beam machinegun, tearing through the torso of the mobile suit until it disintegrated in a fireball and fell away into darkness. Two more Hizacks circled around him on two sides; he boosted straight up with his thrusters, zig-zagged around its fire to close the range and then sprayed it with the beam rifle to join it's comrade. The other mobile suit took aim behind him, but lingered too long and caught a blast from one of the GM's beam guns. "Nice shot, Dan!" Ryo called out on his channel.

The GM pilot saluted him and moved off to search for another target... barely a moment later, a powerful beam reached out from the emptiness of space and struck the mobile suit through the center of the torso, bending it forward from the force of the blow before the machine scattered into space dust, pilot and all.

Ryo turned to the source of the attack, but the mobile suit that fired the shot rushed passed him like a bullet train. For a split second they were eye to eye, and somehow Ryo managed to look over the entire machine in the space of a single heartbeat: a Hizack Custom with a drab silver paint scheme. "Dieter Cunningham!"

"Back again Izumi?" Dieter passed overhead and started to circle around, Ryo locked on with the beam rifle and fired off a long burst as he circled the opposite direction. The Hizack was fast enough to avoid most of the burst, but a few of the pulses clipped his arm-shield and burned clean through as he returned fire with his own rifle. "What the... beam machinegun?" He circled with Ryo in several complete loops, both exchanging fire with beam weapons even as they dodged each other's attacks. Ryo's beam rifle fired off a dozen pulses for every single shot from Dieter's gun; ultimately, a pulse from the Gerbera Tetra sliced through his shoulder armor and his left arm immediately stopped moving. "This Zaku wannabe...!" He fired a spread of missiles from the pods on his waist armor and backed away at full thrust to gain some distance as Ryo pressed the attack again with the beam rifle.

Father from the Titans fleet, the GM unit circled in a dogfight with at least as many Hizacks, among them Naomi's Gerberta Tetra danced within and selected targets almost at Random. Two Titans GMs dogged one of Brisbane's suits; Naomi cut down the first with her beam rifle and closed in to slice the second in half with the beam saber in the opposite hand. Two Hizacks from one of the cruisers moved to avenge their comrades, both locking onto Naomi and opened fire with machineguns. Her mobile suit had the clear speed advantage; she circled around in space at such a high speed that she was already behind them even before their shells passed the spot where she was, sank a short burst into one of them with the beam rifle and passed it as it exploded, stabbing the second through the back with the saber. "This is disappointing." She grumbled, scanning in space for a second target, "This is supposed to be a diversionary attack, but at this rate we'll shoot them all down without 'diverting' them anywhere."

Her computer flashed a warning from the sensors and she spun around to the source of it with a sudden twinge of excitement in her stomach. A heat source from the Titans fleet told her that the assault carrier Thoroughbred was finally launching her mobile suits; the computer counted only one mobile suit, and displayed the data on her screen for what the databank called Gundam G5. "Maybe I spoke too soon... Ryo, the Gundam's coming out! Let's fall back so Vanessa can have an opening!"

"No problem, Commander!" Ryo fired off a quick burst from the beam rifle to keep Dieter at bay, then turned his back to him and boosted off at a speed just slow enough for the pursuit unit to follow. He could have easily left all of them in the dust with the speed of this new mobile suit, but for their purposes it was better to keep them engaged. "We really need to stop meeting like this, Dieter!"

The Hizack kept pace with the mobile suit only by keeping to full thrust. Dieter could tell Ryo was leading him towards the wreckage of the same Papua class transport they had been hiding behind before, but out of the corner of his eye he knew that the other two suits from his own team were catching up only a couple hundred meters behind him. He immediately started thinking of ways to catch Izumi in a pincer. "How about tea and biscuits? That more to your liking?"

"Fine with me. We'll play 'Pin the tail on the mass murderer.'"

"Aren't we self-righteous?" Dieter fired a quick blast from the beam rifle to try and slow him down; Ryo rolled and dodged the shot, but at the same moment a second blast from the Hizack further behind Dieter caught him by surprise and ripped a chunk out of his chestplate. The Gerbera stuttered from the impact, but doubled back to its original course before darting off behind the transport wreckage. One of the Hizacks hung back while Dieter and the third mobile suit followed him behind the wrecked hull. As soon as they rounded the corner, Dieter sensed an attack from behind and realized with a start that the Gerbera had changed direction in the two seconds it was out of sight and positioned itself in a perfect firing position. He fired his thrusters to full power in an evasive action, but realized two late that the attack was not aimed at him.

A long burst from the beam rifle sprayed the Hizack behind him and cut it to pieces. Ryo fired another burst in Dieter's direction, but the third Hizack appeared behind him and fired a missile spread in point blank range, blinding him for a few moments as it charged in with beam saber drawn. Ryo thought for half a second to draw his own saber, then thought better of it; raising one arm, he fired a long burst from the twin 110mm cannon on his left arm, ripping straight into the torso of the suit and shredding the armor around the cockpit with the first shots of the burst. The mobile suit crashed harmlessly against the shipwreck and began to drift, and when Ryo turned around again he found Dieter's mobile suit was nowhere in sight. "Did he run away?"

An explosion off to his left caught his attention, followed by a quick flash from the exchange of weapons fire in the distance. Naomi's voice was ragged in his radio, "Ryo, I'm getting dogged by this Gundam! I could use some support if you can spare it!"

"Sit tight Naomi, I'll be right there." 

_- 0830 hours (CST) -_  
Miles away, a quarter turn around the slope of the colony and a mile west on the main highway, through closed windows and a locked door, over the quiet chatter of a TV left on downstairs. Nine woke to the sound and sat up slowly. She didn't hear it as much as it echoed in the back of her brain, a thousand voices and a thousand minds united in anger and frustration against some common enemy elsewhere. They didn't feel like enemies, but a mutual hostility was among them. _What's going on out there? An attack?_ She rolled out of the convertible bed and felt around the room, finding a set of fresh clothes Alfred had left for her on the shelf by the door. Her cane was leaning against the doorknob; she took it in hand and made her way to the end of the hall, down the stairs to the front door. 

Her hand brushed something near the doorknob; she flicked it with her finger and found some kind of string attached to the door, stretching halfway across the room towards the direction of the kitchen. Nine followed the string to a table against the wall and found an small tape recorder with a sheet of paper taped to the side. She couldn't read it but she knew she didn't have to; she found the "play" button and pressed it, listened for a moment as the recording started, "Good morning, Alice. If you wake up and find this tape, I just went to run some errands and I'll be back in a couple of hours. If you get hungry, there's a tuna salad in the fridge, bottom shelf, in a bumpy container with a notecard on the lid."

Nine stopped the recording and laughed to herself. She wasn't used to this kind of special treatment from anyone who called her a "friend." The most she could usually hope for from her comrades on the Dogos Gaia was a wad of pre-chewed bubblegum and a day-old hamburger nobody wanted. She tried to coax herself into staying here and enjoying an old friend's hospitality, but the pressure she felt from the distance surged in her head again and she felt a growing curiosity to know more. In her sightless world, she could almost see the thin haze of energy off in the distance, a dark cloud of negativity. _Can't be an attack,_ she thought, _There's no air raid sirens..._

There was no one on the street when she walked out the front door, and for three blocks she heard nothing on the sidewalk save the chirping of birds and the commotion from a pair of squirrels playing in a tree nearby. The entire town seemed mysteriously vacant for some reason, yet somewhere in the distance she heard the faint echo of a single voice shouting something in an angry roar. Thousands of others answered him in a cacophony of angry chants and slogans. Nine zeroed in on the source of it, winding towards it one block at a time as the shouting grew louder and the commotion in the distance became more apparent.

She stopped as she came to the edge of them, keeping out of what she could tell was a fairly large crowd gathered in a five-way intersection in the center of city. More than a thousand people were gathered here, many holding signs and banners with slogans and doctored photographs, with a thousand more looking on from rooftops nearby and leaning out of windows of neighboring buildings. If Nine could have looked she would have seen a dozen banners hanging from as many buildings with slogans in the same mood to match the signs carried by the demonstrators, "Space Colonies for Spacenoids" read one banner, while the building directly across from it flew "Drag your knuckles some place else." Someone jostled Nine from behind and she stepped out of the way and leaned against a building as three men in cardboard Zaku costumes marched by dragging an inflatable doll in a Titans uniform by a noose around its neck.

The man in the center of the rally was standing on a stage, a set of microphones lined up in front of him wired to an array of oversized speakers powerful enough to carry to most of the city for miles around. "It's bad enough the Federation tries to sanction any colony that wants to try and defend itself! Now the Titans come around, they sanction us just for trying to FEED ourselves! And what do they use to justify this farce?!" The crowd hissed in anticipation, half of them already knowing what he was going to say, "They always use the same line: for STABILITY! That's it, that's the reason, for STABILITY!!" A chorus of "boos" and angry shouts exploded from the crowd around him. "And then only FEDERATION stability!" 

The people erupted en-masse with a barrage of insults fired into the sky. Nine almost felt their words homing in on her like a flight of missiles to her heart.

"When Riah developed a mobile defense force, the Feddies told all the colonies that THEY could defend us from any enemies, that THEY were the ones who kept peace in the Earth sphere! OH REALLY! Where was the Federation when the Zeeks overran out colonies?! Where was the Federation when our families were dying in the streets?! When the Delaz Fleet was raiding our shipping lines, where were those Feddy hotshots who do such a great job protecting us?!" Half the people in the rally began physically gyrating in the crowd in growing emotion. Nine actually had to take a few steps back, partly out of fear, but moreso out of the intensity of the emotions here.

"And who's protecting our colonies now?!" The man shouted with more intensity than ever, "Who keeps the peace for our people?! Who opposes the greatest threats to our civilization so our families don't have to live in fear?! Who do the Feddies think they're protecting when they occupy our colonies, intimidate our people, harass our merchants, bully our leaders... The Titans aren't here to protect us from the enemy! The Titans ARE the enemy! They're the ONLY enemy we have left to fear! And this time we won't wait for a pack of dimwitted Earthnoids to swing in on chandeliers with their fancy mobile suits... it's time we took control of our destinies with our OWN HANDS!"

It seemed as if a bomb had gone off in the midst of them. The sudden outburst of energy from the crowd shook the ground and crackled in the air. Everyone watching on the ground and listening on the radio or on television felt a powerful swell of pride, a feeling like patriotism but without any country to speak of. Most of those at the rally had come from all over the Earth sphere, some had even come from as Far as Side 7 just to attend to the rally. In this time and place, for a fleeting moment, they were all united as one people. United against Earth.

Nine was almost half a block away before the commotion and shouting of slogans had faded enough for her to hear her own thoughts, but now in the solitude of an empty street she leaned back against a light post and pondered to herself. _What are these people thinking? If the Titans didn't keep such tight control of the spacenoids, the terrorists would run amok with no one to stop them. It would be anarchy, no order, no authority... why don't they understand that?_ She started to wave them off in disgust as a mob of foolishness and continue on her way... and not even three steps farther, she changed her mind. _Who ARE these terrorists?_ She thought with a twinge of fear, _Certainly not Zeons. Naomi and the Tarawa used to work for the Titans before what happened to the Merrimac... but why? What are they fighting for? What do they want?_ She turned back on reflex in the direction of the rally in the intersection. It was only the beginning of the event; more and more people were starting to appear to join in. In a matter of hours there would be half a million people gathered around this very spot. _What if he's right? What if the Titans ARE the real enemy?_

Lost in thought she came to the curb of a street near Alfred's house. When she turned to cross at the intersection, she collided with something—in fact someone—standing on the corner going the opposite direction. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"Isn't there somewhere you should be right now?" It was no Titans uniform, but the voice belonged to Miranda. She heard set of footsteps on the concrete as Ulyana Zabi stepped up behind her, and suddenly Nine realized the two had her sandwiched. Miranda's voice sounded even less friendly than usual.

"I'm not in the mood for your bullshit today. Excuse me..."

"Where'd you spend the night, Nine?" Ulyana grabbed her elbow as she tried to walk away from them, "Shacking up with some boy during shore leave?"

"That's none of your business."

"The hell it isn't," Miranda stepped up in front of her and grabbed her by the collar, lifting her half off her feet and spitting in her face as she talked, "Your very existence is classified Top Secret. If anyone in this colony recognizes you, that person disappears. But even so, that's not even what we're here for."

Nine wiped a spittle from her cheek and glowered at her. "So what ARE you here for?"

"This..." Miranda gave shove, and Ulyana kicked her legs out from under her. Nine fell on her back against the pavement and scrambled back to her feet, but immediately the two of them charged her to tackle her to the ground...

All at once, Nine's world unfolded in her mind's eye and displayed itself for her to see. She could sense both of them charging towards her, she could see everything in them from their clothes to their bones, and beyond that she could even see their souls. Everything they did was displayed in front of her; she sidestepped both of them with one deft movement.

Miranda and Ulyana dove to tackle a column of empty air, crashed against the pavement in confusion, then scrambled up again and charged Nine in rage. Both threw punches, Nine swatted them both away like pair of flies. Miranda kicked at her right leg, Nine stepped over her leg and tripped her off balance. Ulyana grabbed for her collar, Nine caught her arm and twisted it back against the elbow, at once breaking her down to one knee. In another second Miranda was back to her feet and charging Nine from behind. She sensed her moving; Nine reached back as she came close and caught her arm behind her head even as she reached for her, released Ulyana for half a second and then shoulder-threw Miranda a good twenty feet into the side of a newspaper stand. In the landing, Miranda's coat ripped free from her shoulders, and it took all of two seconds for someone in the crowd to notice the color of a Titans uniform underneath.

"TITANS OFFICERS!" Someone shouted from a rooftop, and at the same moment Nine heard someone nearby loading a pistol, "Two of em! They're beatin up some kid!"

A hail of gunfire erupted from the rooftops of some of the buildings, bullets pelting the concrete behind them as Miranda and Ulyana scrambled to their feet and sprinted away. A mob at least a dozen men rushed after them in pursuit until before Miranda drew her sidearm and fired into the midst of them. One of the men took a bullet in the leg, the other shot through the chest collapsed to the ground like a ton of bricks. One man stopped and aimed with an old revolver, but Miranda's next shot dropped him before he could pull the trigger; the bullet smashed through a row of his front teeth before finally exploding out the back of his head. The rest of the crowd scattered as Ulyana added her gun to the shooting, then the two of them ran another half a block before coming to the spot where they'd parked a rental jeep. "Be waitin for you on the Gaia, Nine!" She shouted more as a general threat than an invitation.

Nine bent down and picked up her cane, then started back towards Alfred's house without another word. A few members of the crowd gathered around her in excitement, some wanting to know if she was hurt, some shouting nonsense about "Titans abusers," but the one voice in the crowd that caught her attention was the same one that had shouted the original warning from the rooftop, "Look how they run! Those Titans thugs show up just to pick on some blind kid! We're not gonna take this anymore! It's time for the colonies to unite!"

The irony of their sentiments was not lost on Nine Murasame, but as she finally arrived at Alfred's house and the curious pack of onlookers evaporated, she stopped herself at the front door and smiled in revelation. _ Well, I guess that explains why the Tarawa switched sides._


	25. Chapter 24: Past Lives

Who we are today is less important than who we were yesterday. Don't get me wrong, yesterday is still important, but how do you expect to move into the future if all of your thoughts are stuck in the past?_  
- Rashad Jefferson_  


* * *

** Chapter 24: Past Lives**

_- June 7, UC 0084 -_  
_- 0830 hours (CST) -_  
The range to the Titans fleet was so great the computer could not even spot them at this distance. Duncan estimated them to be at least five hundred kilometers distance, but Vanessa was sure they were much farther than that. With the intensity of the mobile suit battle moving away from the fleet perimeter, the auras of the Titans officers on the ships was by now much easier to pick out. Concealed as they were within the bay block of a half-demolished colony, she had a clear shot to every ship in their formation from here. If only she could pick her first target. "I can sense the target but I can't tell which one is the Agamemnon."

Duncan checked the output on the beam cannon and started powering it up for its first firing. "I don't think it maters as long as you hit one of them."

"So pick one at random, is it?" She shouldered the high-output beam rifle in her hands and aimed it in the direction of the Titans fleet. She didn't bother with the GM's sniper scope, but closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to concentrate on her attack. She selected one in particular and focused all her attention onto it, felt the collective energies of its crew, and focusing more and more attention on it until she could almost make out the shape of the vessel in her mind's eye. She adjusted the controls with the slightest touch until the beam rifle lined up with the enemy ship, and slowly she moved her hands to the fire control panel and charged up the capacitor on the rifle. "I think I'm locked in."

"Energy level rising... 81%" Duncan checked the power cable from the rifle to the portable fusion reactor they had brought with them, making sure the lines were in no danger of overheating any time soon. There was no need for a coolant line when using this weapon in space, but he had seen strange things happen when Minovsky particles were involved. "Full power. Locked in."

"Charging..." The force chamber in the beam rifle built up power for its attack and the little green light flashed on her monitor. Vanessa pulled the trigger without any announcement.

The beam crossed an ocean of space between the colony and the Titans fleet, passing directly over the Agamemnon's bow at a steep angle before striking the main hull of one of the Salamis cruisers beneath it. The beam sliced clean through the ship just starboard of the bridge, superheating the metal and air within the hull and sending jets of flame erupting through the fittings of the hull plates even as the beam wound its way along the hull and sliced the ship open like a fish. The stricken warship spun as the inferno consumed its innards until moments later a second beam hit just aft of the mobile suit hangar, cutting across the hull vertically and slicing the bow clean off. A fireball of hot gas and molten metal drove the two halves away from each other and sent the now-dead cruiser tumbling off into oblivion in pieces.

Admiral Carter came half out of his chair and shouted at the top of his lungs as the alarms rang throughout the ship, "Evasive action! Get us some cover from that sniper fire! Simone, trace the firing path of that beam cannon!"

The Lieutenant ran the sensor data and charted the origin to too wide a margin to be of help. "I can't pinpoint, but it's coming from somewhere in Side 2! The direction is 51 degrees elevation, 20 degrees to port!"

"Have the Thoroughbred launch everything they've got left to try and pin it down! Passaroff, move us towards the construction site for Bunch 39."

The hulking block of a man that was Carter's first officer followed orders immediately and the Agamemnon's engines fired, moving the ship off of its planned course and straight on towards the half-completed cylinder that in a few years time would become the 39th colony of Side 2. The rest of the fleet began moving to follow them, one of the cruisers even started launching its remaining mobile suits to join the Thoroughbred's pursuit unit... until another blast from the same beam rifle reached out from the darkness and struck down one of the Hizacks only moments after leaving the catapult track. The cruiser's gunners reacted on impulse and fired a few salvos into the distance; one lucky shot impacted against the wall of the very colony in which Duncan and Vanessa were hiding.

The concussion from the cannon fire shook her cockpit, and with the sudden frantic energy of the Titans she struggled to keep her concentration and pick out her next target. They're moving into that construction site for cover, Deuce." She said anxiously.

"That's okay, we can use that. Look for the ship the others seem to be moving to protect. That'll be the Agamemnon."

Vanessa focused her attention again and found the ship she was looking for, the one the other ships seemed to be trying to screen from her attacks. It was difficult to sense with the others in her way... but the moment she focused all of her attention on it, she felt a pressure from the enemy ship unlike any she had experienced before. It was more than just battle stress she was used to, this was something more, almost repulsion at some power too alien for her to contenplate. "I can barely focus on it... that man, he's..."

"I know, Sis, I feel it to." Duncan checked the energy level and the cable again. The rifle was almost ready for another firing. Everything was working fine, but the portable fusion reactor powering the beam rifle was beginning to fluctuate in readings and thermal outputs. "Give it your best shot. The generator's won't last much longer."

******

The Sedona was in no danger of being destroyed, but the mobile suit battle was no less intense than it hand been when it started. The wreckage of the Lexington had become fulcrum of their fight now; Bate's team brawled with Lucy's Gundam in a four-way dance on the one side, while Gardner and Sullivan lead a team of six GMs and Hizacks against Mike and Rico with three GMs. Despite the difference in numbers, both sides were at a standstill, but it was not a deadlock that the Tarawa's pilots were pleased to maintain.

Rico kept as much distance between himself and the GMs as he could, firing over his shoulder with the beam rifle to keep them at bay before reversing back to cover Mike as he pulled out as well. The three GMs darted back and forth exchanging fire with the Titans suits, occasionally scoring hits with machineguns or beam guns as they were equipped but neither side gaining any decisive advantage. "Mike, why the hell are they picking on us?!" Rico complained.

A pulse from Sullivan's beam gun cut through Mike's left shoulder and the arm fell away in a shower of sparks. "Aw man... I dunno Rico, but I'm pretty sure it's YOUR fault!"

"Yeah, whatever! How are we gonna get out of this?!"

He gave it half a second's thought, then reversed his thrusters and charged in towards the GM unit. "Stay on my right flank, no matter what! Don't break till I tell you!"

"You have a plan?"

"Just stay on my right!"

Rico followed along, moving behind and to the right of Mike's Galbaldy as it charged in to attack. The speed advantage over the GM was beginning to manifest here, even as Sullivan started to move to counter what he predicted to be a standard flanking maneuver. Mike broke to the right as he came into range of the GM, starting to circle around it on that side as he dodged fire from the GM. Sully circled in the opposite direction to keep him from getting to his back, answering Mike's fire with his beam gun shot for shot. After half a rotation, Mike fired a series of quick shots, across Sullivan's face and shouted out to Rico, "Change directions!"

Rico did as he was told, and in a just a moment he had a perfect shot of the GM's vernier pack. A single blast from the beam rifle and it was all over: Sullivan's GM spun lazily in space for a few long moments, then the fuel tanks ruptured and the suit ripped itself apart.

Mike turned in space and searched for the other GM, but before he could locate it Lucy's Gundam shot passed him, firing over her shoulder from her arm gatling with the three Hizack Customs in hot pursuit. "This isn't our show, fellas! Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Right behind you!" Mike turned away from the fight and started to retreat, but even at a glance, from the intensity of the three Hizacks dancing with Lucy, the Titans didn't seem willing to allow any kind of retreat today. On the other hand, their attention was entirely focused on the Gundam now... he wondered if they would even notice a battleship sneaking up on them with a solid weapons lock. "Lucy, fly straight in towards the lead suit with your beam saber and lock up with him for just a moment..."

"Screw that, Mike! Are you nuts?!"

"I got your back, but we need to get one of them to stop moving!"

Lucy took a deep breath and drew her beam saber, locked onto Bate's mobile suit and charged in at full thrust. The Hizack discarded its beam rifle and drew its own saber, meeting the Gundam in the same spirit and locking up with it for just a moment in space. Monsha reacted in a split second and moved in behind her to take a shot...

The moment he stopped moving, Mike pulled the trigger. The beam exploded in the sensor eye, destroying the mobile suit's head and sending it tumbling backwards in space. Monsha had just enough time to spring the hatch and leap to safety before Rico put the death blow into the suit and blasted it to pieces. The distraction was just enough for Lucy to finish her work: she pushed off from the Hizack with her foot, then slashed down on it with the beam saber against the torso, cutting through the right arm and leaving a deep gash across the torso just above the cockpit hatch. In the time it took for Bate to regroup his thoughts, the Gundam was already kilometer away, racing into the distance with its comrades at top speed and slowly vanishing into the darkness behind a radar wall of minovksy particles. 

******

The mobile suit itself was not especially impressive, but the range of armaments it equipped was troublesome in itself. The G-5's gatling cannon seemed to have a bottomless magazine, and with such a high firing rate there was simply no way to attack it for any period of time. The hyper beam rifle was a nice surprise as well, a powerful weapon with a fast firing rate used almost the same way as the gatling gun. After 20 minutes of a running fight, the Titans fleet was nowhere to be seen, but the Gundam the two of them danced with now was drawing all their attention.

From the opposite perspective, Commander Rongfellow found himself blinking intensely as the sweat started to sting his eyes. His arms were growing tired, his heart racing in his chest; just the sheer effort of keeping up with the two speed-demon mobile suits tested his piloting abilities in ways he never thought possible. "Christ, why don't you two just retreat already?! You've gotta be running low on fuel moving like that!"

By sheer coincidence, Naomi's eyes were even now drifting between the forward screens and the fuel gauge on her instrument panel. "We're runnin on fumes here, Ryo, we're gonna have to pull back!"

Ryo glanced at his own fuel gauge and groaned in annoyance. He had just enough in his tanks to make it back to the Tarawa and land, assuming the ship hadn't changed course since they'd launched earlier that day. "We'll need cover fire..." He backed away from the Gundam just as the gatling cannon fired off another spray in his direction, answered back with a burst from his arm cannons and fired off a flare into open space over his head. The flare burst a brilliant white signal that could be seen for hundreds of kilometers, and Ryo adjusted his course to fly past it on his way back to the Tarawa's rendezvous point. The Gundam seemed to be pressing the attack, as did the pack of a half-dozen Hizacks suits pursuing the GM team. 

Ryo watched as the Brisbane's mobile suits moved into formation just ahead of his and snuck a peak at his watch, "Six... five... four... three... two..." A new star appeared in the distance, glowing brilliantly for an instant before it blossomed into a hair-raising barrage of mega particle beams raining down on the Titans suits from hundreds of kilometers away. 

Lieutenant Rongfellow reversed course and pulled out of the line of fire, but one of the Hizack pilots hesitated too long and pulled out of the chaos missing both of his legs. "They must have a ship nearby..." Rongfellow checked his ammo supply and raised a brow at his display: his beam rifle was almost depleted, and the magazine of his gatling cannon had exactly three rounds left. "When they come back next time, we better be ready for them."

******

The Agamemnon's main guns joined the two Salamis cruisers in a salvo, targeting the colony Simone had traced the sniper fire to. One of Vanessa's attacks had cut open a second cruiser amidships, but the ship had somehow survived the attack and was now pouring its firepower into the wrecked colony along with the rest of the fleet formation. 

Vanessa could barely even sense the enemy now with the concussions from beam cannons pelting the colony wall, little by little smashing it to bits around her. One lucky shot even hit the bay block a few hundred meters from the old space gate they were using for a shelter. "Concentrate, Sis!" Duncan said, all the patience and gentleness fading in his voice, "The target's right there in front of you! Visualize the enemy in the eye of a hurricane!"

"That's what you say, but..." Another barrage from the beam cannons hit the colony, this one close enough that Vanessa's GM almost lost its footing on the metal surface.

"Vanessa, one of the bastards that killed our father is aboard the Agamemnon! He's gloating over it right now! He took pleasure in doing it!"

Her concentration evaporated at the same moment her vision of the enemy surged. Her next series of actions were pure instinct, homing in on the source of the greatest unpleasantness and locking the weapon onto it. The energy level was already maxed out, and Vanessa knew that with the density of enemy bombardment, it was likely the last shot they would get today. "I can't let the Titans get away with this..." She snarled through clenched teeth.

"You sure as hell can't!"

"I can't let the Titans go unpunished..."

"You sure as hell won't!"

Vanessa could see the Agamemnon in her mind as clear as if she were standing right next to it. Her beam rifle centered on the very middle of the ship and her senses told her the next shot would be the last. "Agamemnon, burn in hell!!"

In the same moment she pulled the trigger, a tremendous salvo of mega particles hit the bay block only a few meters from where the two of them were standing. An explosion swept up around them both as the block collapsed from the attack, jets of flame rocking both of them at once. Vanessa steadied herself as much as possible as the beam fired from the rifle.

Vanessa's answer to their bombardment hit the Agamemnon's flight deck a dozen meters forward of the mobile suit hangar, burning straight through the hull and sending jets of flame gushing out in both directions along with a spray of dislodged hull plating and molten material from deep inside. The beam sliced along the length of the flight deg in a jagged diagonal to starboard until it finally cut off, leaving the heavy cruiser's flight deck and one of the launch catapults smoldering in the hull as the metal slowly began to cool.

Duncan snatched Vanessa by the hand and dragged her out of the bay block just as the damaged fusion reactor started to overload, snapping the cable from the long-range beam rifle as they went. The reactor explosion shattered much of what remained of the bay block, but the power of the blast itself seemed to satisfy the gunners in the Titans fleet. The barrage began to let up and finally ceased altogether, leaving Duncan and Vanessa to take a roundabout course past the Titans fleet to where the Tarawa was waiting to recover the mobile suit teams. "Nice shootin, Sis." Duncan said with a note of admiration.

"I could have done better with that larger beam cannon back on the ship."

Duncan nodded in empathy. "I know how you feel, but you know we're saving that for the Flash Gundam. We can't risk weapons like that for these kinds of missions."

"That's true." Vanessa opened her faceplate and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She felt exhausted already, she knew from the stress of having to attack targets by newtype sense alone. At this point the only thing she could sense now was the call of her pillow on the bed in her quarters. "This mission is over, Deuce. Let's hurry back before their patrols spot us."

******

Lieutenant Osborne moved through the debris of Monsha's mobile suit and found the disgruntled pilot flailing around in space, trying and failing to get his vernier back to function properly. "You okay Lieutenant?" He said innocently, "You look a little frustrated."

"Don't gimme that you bastard! Just pick me up already!"

Osborne reached out his hand and pulled Monsha in, just as Bate moved alongside them along with a damaged GM from the Federation squadron. "The Sedona's out of danger, and those pirate suits are bugging out. Think we should pursue?"

Lieutenant Bate took a moment to glance around the battlefield and immediately decided against it. "Negative. We're already at our limit as it is. Get back to the Sedona and escort her to the Titans fleet. You'll operate with our squadron from now on."

"Yes sir." Lieutenant Gardner saluted and closed the channel, then moved on a course that would bring him back to the Sedona, back to the ship that had been his home, the ship his comrades had protected for him with their lives. He clenched his fist in bitterness and ground his teeth in rage. Some time in the next two weeks, Lieutenant Sullivan's two daughters would open a letter from EFSF command, a bland and apathetic notice that their father would not be returning from his last tour of duty.

As they soon would, Lieutenant Gardner stopped to ask himself the purpose of his friend's death. The emptiness of space filled his heart.

_- 1412 hours (CST) -  
_"Why are you in such a hurry? I thought you work for a research company?"

Nine didn't give his intrusion so much as a backward glance; she tossed Alfred's sweater on the floor at his feet and picked up her newly washed t-shirt and jacket, "Just because. I'm working very close with the project. There's not much they can do without me."

"Well you don't have to peel out in such a hurry. It's not like they're working to some kind of deadline."

Nine knelt down next to the bed and found her shoes, "Actually, there is a deadline. I didn't know about it until today." She found her shoes and quickly kicked her feet into them, stuffing the laces under her heel. "I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer..."

"But I've started doing all this research on the Merrimac incident. You could at least stay around one more day... maybe I could find out something that could help...?"

"I'm sorry, Alfred. Thanks for everything, but I have to go now." She followed his voice to the door and pushed past him, feeling her way to the top of the stairs and staring down them as quickly as she could.

By the time she got to the front door, she sensed her path blocked by a second person, someone she had heard come in with Alfred but hadn't given much thought to. Until now. "You're going out to fight again," She said, a girl barely older than Nine herself, "We can't let you do that."

She traced the voice to a shadow of a memory somewhere, but the name was unfamiliar. "I have to. I don't have a choice."

"You always have a choice." Alfred said from the top of the stairs, walking down slowly behind her, "Different options are always there, even when you don't see them. There's always a way to get what you want, but fighting for the Titans is not going to help anyone."

Nine turned to face him with burning in her eyes, "You don't understand, Alfred! I don't know anything about myself, I don't even know what I look like! Do you have any idea what kind of world I wake up to every morning?!"

"But you..." 

"The Titans are the only people who can give that back to me, but first I have to finish my part of the deal!"

Alfred read between the lines. "They have you fighting the Tarawa don't they? A man named Brian Anderson?"

At first it just seemed like a lucky guess based on news reports, but immediately Nine sensed something in his voice that told her he knew something... something she was certainly not going to like. "How did you know that? How do you know any of this? Who are you?!"

Alfred knew better than to get into that line of conversation. "Alice, the Tarawa only came because YOU'RE here. You don't have to fight anymore."

"What are you talking about?! Don't you even know what you're saying?! Those terrorists out there would destroy this colony without hesitating! That's all they do is destroy things! That's all the Tarawa has ever...!"

"The Tarawa's not your enemy, Alice!"

"The hell it isn't!" Nine spun around from him and shoved towards the door, throwing it open as the other girl calmly stepped out of her path. 

She stormed out of the house and started on her way towards the linear car to the bay block, but barely ten feet from the front door, Alfred called to her from behind, "Alice, the Tarawa's not your enemy! You can't go out there and fight them!" Nine glanced over her shoulder for a moment, but kept on walking without a word. In desperation, he played his last card in the deck, "BRIAN ANDERSON IS YOUR BROTHER!"

This time she stopped in her tracks and shuddered in realization. She started to turn around to face Alfred again, but for some reason she couldn't build up the willpower to turn back. More than anything she wanted to turn back and ask Alfred what else he might have known, but little by little she began to recognize that her inability to face him was nothing short of an impulse from above... eight hundred feet to be specific, and descending slowly from the colonial sky. Lucifer was in its mobile armor configuration, the psycommu system already active and calling out to her as it came near. 

_So what if he is?_ Her eyes flooded with tears as the giant mobile armor descended in front of her, coming to a landing in a vacant lot only half a block from Alfred's house. She followed the impulses from the psycommu motor almost unconsciously; in a matter of moments she found herself climbing into the cockpit of the machine. She began to loose herself as the power of psy-waves buffeted her consciousness—in a matter of moments the battle system would take full control of her mind. _It means I'm about to annihilate the only people who've ever cared about me._

The mobile armor powered up and rose into the sky of Bunch 13, leaving behind Alfred and his house, his stupefied neighbors staring out their windows in wonder. In a matter of moments the giant mobile armor had ascended high above and disappeared into the clouds on a beeline towards the space gate to the west.

"Do the right thing, Alice," Alfred muttered as he watched her go, "Don't throw your life away for nothing."

******

It is generally accepted that the average person posses a finite amount of tolerance. The limits of a person's patience depends on many factors, mainly the duration of stress and the nature of the source of it. Her patience had endured for no less than fifty eight months without vindication, the authorities oblivious to her frustration despite her most vocal protests, her too cynical to intervene, her parents too self absorbed to notice. 

In the fifty eighth month, her opposition tested the limits of her patience. A heated argument in the school cafeteria evolved into a fight between the beloved Mizuki Shima and the reclusive yet volatile Michiko Shinohara; Matsumoto High's star softball player was never known to fight any of her battles on her own, and this would be no exception. The fight between the smaller girl and seven softball players ended much the way most would have expected it.

Shinohara was accused of provoking the fight and suspended three weeks. Mizuki Shima and each of her friends received three days of detention. Michiko spent the first two days of her suspension in a hospital room.

She returned to school on Monday of the following week, arriving early before classes began and well before any of the faculty had had their morning coffee. She lay in wait for them in the girl's locker room waited for the gym period in which her targets would be isolated and defenseless. And when the hour came, early that morning, Michiko Shinohara burst from a locker, ambushed the three of them and slit their throats with the katana stolen from her father's mantel. She stuffed the bodies into their lockers and moved on, a memorized hit list fresh in her mind. Amagasake Gotoh was next, stabbed in the heart with a kitchen knife, followed by Akemi Hatori and her older sister, whom she impaled on her sword in the same strike. With each killing she moved the bodies to a place where they were unlikely to be found until she wished them to be found, so no one would stop her until she had finished her work. Fifteen students met her steel, each with a long list of offenses from the petty to the grotesque; Hikaru Itoh, her ex-boyfriend... Miyako Hatori, the girl he had been seeing behind her back for almost a year... Markus Washington, the American boy who had gotten her drunk and photographed her in the nude, along with his friend Bobby who published them on the internet a week later.

She caught Mizuki Shima in the girl's washroom during her history class, strangling her to death with an extension chord, then baiting three of her comrades who had participated in the previous week's beating into chasing her into the same washroom between classes, one at a time.

Tiring from a full day of combat, Michiko Shinohara took her place in infamy; she walked the halls of her school, tapping the walls and doors of the classroom with the hilt of her sword until she arrived at the office of the Dean of Discipline. With a surreal grin she entered his office in plain view of a confused and frightened student body, and with the same grin she left the office holding the dean's head by the scalp.

Even as a dream, she remembered the horrified stares of the students around her, the same expression that would be shared by the jury who convicted her and the judge that sentenced her to execution. She remembered standing there in the midst of them with a strange, almost psychotic feeling of power at having completely wroughted her enemies and triumphed at last over injustice... but at that moment, it had been the words of one of her instructors that had shocked her to sanity: "You killed him because he's your enemy. Like Muzki does." She listened as the words fell on her ear and the terrifying reality of her deed; she had marched out of the school like a zombie, tears rolling down her face, still carrying the dean's head until she heard from somewhere in the distance a voice calling her, shouting to her as it came closer...

"Empty Nest to 805, please respond immediately."

Lucy shook the sleep out of her head and gathered her surroundings again, checking her position and fuel status. The core fighter was just passing the area of the resource satellite for the Eastern quadrant of Side 2. "805 standing by."

Brian sounded annoyed over the radio. "Lieutenant, you're almost ten minutes overdue for your next report. Is there a reason for this?"

Lucy hung her head sadly. "I think I nodded off sir. Easy to do with such long waypoints."

"I understand. You're passing into the area near the resource satellite, move in a take a closer look of the mining facility."

"Yokai," She banked the core fighter gently in a slow loop, turning towards the asteroid at an angle that would bring her around it in a slow pass as opposed to diving in for a head-on collision. The mining station itself had been abandoned in the war, and since then none of the local corporations had seen fit to renovate the facility and resume operations there.

Closer to the surface she passed a series of small buildings on one surface of the asteroid, the high-speed digital cameras slung under her wing taking video of the entire surface as she passed over. Nothing caught her eye immediately, and she started to yawn again as she banked the core fighter around the bend... and as she came around, her eyes locked onto a block of shadow against the rock, "Hello, what have we here?" She focused the camera over it as she passed by, then circled around again for another pass and looked at it with her own eyes. A section of the asteroid just big enough for a pair of mobile suits had been carved out and reinforced with steel girders. There were two construction pods locked down in docking clamps, but the other two stations were empty. "Bingo! 805 to empty nest, I think I've we've hit paydirt. I'm returning to base."

"Roger, 805. Be sure to check your six for a tail."

"Will do..." Off to one side, in the direction of Bunch 13, Lucy's radar picked up an energy spike and her motion sensors followed. On a more detailed scan she picked up a curtain of minovksy particles forming between her and the colony, but on infra-red she could just detect the outlines of a pair of Zeon warships at the edge of her scanner range, moving towards the colony at full thrust. _I wonder..._ "805 to Empty Nest, there's a pair of Musai moving towards Bunch 13 on an attack heading. I think they're going after the Dogos Gaia, I want to stick around for a bit and monitor the battle."

Brian thought for a moment, then answered back, "Negative, 805, we can't run the risk of you getting spotted. Return to ship immediately."

"Roger." _So much for THAT idea... oh well, I doubt they'll show us anything we haven't already seen._

  
_- 1419 hours (CST) -_Dr. Adams looked up from his control panel and nodded to the Admiral in his chair. "Lucifer's made contact, sir. She'll be joining us in about six minutes."

Admiral Carter nodded and turned to his radar officer, "And those bogeys we spotted?"

The radar officer checked his screens and squinted at the data on his consol. "Maintaining course and speed. Judging by their position I'd say they're waiting for us."

Carter grinned. _They probably don't even realize they've been detected._ "Move us out of the bay block in standard maneuvers. Maintain battle stations, but keep all gunports and missile bays closed until we're in range to attack."

Adams turned in his chair and spoke over his shoulder, "The kids are standing by, sir, unless you want to do this the old fashion way."

"By all means. Let the little scamps indulge themselves."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Sir," The communications officer on the other side of the bridge turned slowly in his chair, "Signal from the Agamemnon. I think he's reporting battle damage..."

Carter scowled for half a second, then put the Admiral on the monitor on the armrest of his chair, "Talk to me, Dyson."

The Admiral's face was a mask of anxiety, the bridge behind him a hotbed of activity of all sorts. "I have nothing but bad news. Tarawa's mobile suits got the drop on us. We've lost almost half of our mobile suits, the Cambodia was destroyed, and the Kashmir has suffered heavy damage. And as for me, we took a direct hit to the forward hull, both MS catapults are out, but we think we can repair one of them by midnight."

Admiral Carter took it all in and dismissed it offhand... and after a moment he even began to chuckle, "Admiral Dyson, you have finally made yourself useful."

"Sir?"

"You've demonstrated very clearly the need for more powerful weapons and more capable pilots to deal with more troublesome dissidents like the Tarawa and the likes. I'm afraid that the Flash Gundam is the only weapon that has ever come close to bringing them down."

Even now the Dogos Gaia was just beginning to leave the spaceport of Bunch 13, and almost the moment they did the ship's own sensor systems picked up the group of renegade warships the recon unit had been tracking for the past hour or more. "Targets in sight, Admiral," The radar officer reported, "Looks like two Musai class light cruisers."

Carter acknowledged the man, then turned back to Admiral Dyson on his monitor, "It's not too much of a problem if your catapults are damaged. I'm primarily hoping to draw the Tarawa into a battleship fight, use your mobile suits defensively while the Flash Gundams take the fight directly to their ships. Their pilots won't be able to attack us while they're busy driving off the newtypes, but even if they do manage to hold out, we have a clear ship-to-ship advantage."

"Sounds like a plan... My radar shows a renegade force advancing on your position. Shall we launch mobile suits to assist you?"

Carter thought about it for a moment, but even as he did, the veiwports on the right side of the bridge flared for a moment in brilliant light as Lucifer zipped past the ship and moved into formation forward to port. There it began its transformation; the mobile suit literally unfolded itself, arms and legs and torso section from a compact flying machine into a freakishly huge mobile weapon, thirty meters from head to tow, bristling with beam cannons and any number of defensive systems and knick-knacks the engineers could squeeze into the frame. Like the Flash Gundam it looked rather bulky and even a bit absurd, but Carter had seen this mobile suit in action once before. In the hands of a pilot like Nine Murasame, it was a weapon with no equal in the universe. "Adams, give the kids clearance to launch. Set their targets to the enemy warships closing on our position." He waited for Adams to program the mobile suits, then turned back to Dyson's monitor with a wolf's grin, "Now's your chance to see Lucifer in action, Admiral. Watch and learn."


	26. Chapter 25: Alice's Heart

_"It is only with the heart that one can see clearly, and with the spirit that one can understand properly. What really matters is invisible to the eye and beyond the reach of the mind."  
_- Isaac Cunningham

* * *

**Chapter 25: Alice's Heart**

_- June 8, UC 0084 -  
- 0710 hours (CST) -  
_The briefing room lights dimmed, the pilots and crew lit only by the glow from the monitor from all the recon images. The Agamemnon's sliced open flight deck was a favorite, along with the two damaged cruisers and the mobile suits they had destroyed in the last raid. Another image overlapped the others, a grainy still of the Dogos Gaia as it passed a section of colony wreckage, framed by explosions in space around it. "Things have taken a turn for the unexpected," Brian said stiffly, pointing to the largest image, "These images were taken by an assault team launched by an anti-Federation sect known as the Spacenoid Liberation Party. They attacked the Dogos Gaia with two Musai class cruisers, supported by a Bigro mobile armor and ten AMS-57 Hercules mobile suits. We have no idea where they came from, but we're certain the attack has something to do with a shooting incident in Bunch 13 during one of yesterday's rallies. This is the first time the S.L.P. has ever taken part in any combative action that we know of." Brian tapped a button on the consol and the image switched to a single frame from the CNN broadcast barely two hours earlier. "It is also the last."

The mangled wreckage of two Zeon vessels floated side by side, their mobile suits torn to pieces around them. The pattern of damage was familiar to all of them, the total ship-wide destruction and of the two cruisers and the almost freeze-frame manner in which the mobile suits were dispatched, as if every one of them had been destroyed at the exact same instant. "The battleship dispatched them in less than four minutes, and the surviving members of the S.L.P. were promptly arrested in their homes less than an hour later. We believe all four Flash Gundams were deployed as their front line, but based on some eyewitness accounts they've replaced one of the Gundams with something new, something we haven't seen before. Our contact in Bunch 13 described a mobile armor of an unknown type, possibly a large command unit with capabilities similar to the Flash Gundam, but reduced mobility to sustain a more powerful psycommu."

"Do we have time to gather intelligence to assess a weakness?" Duncan asked, his pen already jotting down notes for later.

Brian frowned. "Time is about the only thing we don't have. The Agamemnon's fleet is combing Side 2 for any sign of rebel activity, and it's only a matter of time before they discover our hiding spot. We have no choice but to go on the offensive while we still have the initiative." He tapped the control panel on the wall again, switching the images over to mission data and highlighting the objectives in front of them. "Our best chance is to draw the Flash Gundams into a mobile suit battle and lead at least one of them to a pre-arranged location. Vanessa will be waiting there with the mega beam launcher for a clear shot. A direct hit against a distracted Flash Gundam should be able to at least disable it, even through the protection of a low-intensity I-field."

Ryo popped up from the crowd, "And just how exactly are we supposed to draw out those four Gundams? As soon as they see our mobile suits they'll fill the sky with Hizacks to intercept us..."

"That's actually the easy part." Brian's eyes darkened just a bit, "The Tarawa will move to a position here, just south of Bunch 17 near the old mining operation on the resource satellite. We'll present ourselves as a visible target, and maneuver as if preparing to leave Side 2. Admiral Carter likes to stick to his patterns, so if he sees us retreating he'll surely send the Flash Gundams to destroy us before we can escape."

"And what keeps them from doing exactly that?" Lucy said with a nervous flutter in her stomach.

"That's easy. At first sight of them we run like hell." Brian changed the image again, showing a close up of the asteroid and a small alcove near one of the mining tunnels that had once stored labor pods in rows. "With the orientation of the asteroid, this area is always in shadow. We'll have Vanessa camp here and wait for the Flash Gundams to come into range, then your mobile suits will distract it while Vanessa draws a bead. A direct hit should be enough to destroy it, but if it doesn't, it's up to the supporting mobile suits to finish the job."

Vanessa huffed in complaint, "I've run a few simulations with the beam cannon, and I think the damn thing's a lemon. There's no way to generate enough power, and half the time the reactor overloads and blasts you into next Saturday."

Brian nodded in understanding. "Lucy flew a recon of the asteroid last night. Its reactor should still be operational, and I believe there's a power shunt in that alcove you can tap to supply the beam cannon..." He paused for a just a moment, and Vanessa braced herself for the bad news, "Unfortunately, because of the nature of this mission..."

Vanessa nodded, already ahead of him. "It's not like it matters, Captain. If I get spotted by one of those Gundams, I'm dog meat with or without a support unit."

"Then we'll try and keep them focused on us as much as possible."

Commander Wilson had been silently brooding in the corner for the duration of the briefing, but without so much as a warning she erupted from her chair and paced in front of the lot of them, "I want to remind you all," She said in a powerful tone, "The Titans are about to replace the Zeon as the most dangerous threat to the space colonies. They have no reservations on causing damage to our colonies in the course of battle, but WE cannot afford to risk civilian lives. Whatever happens in this sortie, do not involve any of the colonies."

All of them nodded, and Naomi gestured for Brian to bring the lights back up. "Suit up! We're launching in one hundred minutes. Vanessa, you launch immediately and get to that asteroid."

The room cleared out as if by the touch of a button, all of the pilots scrambling out towards the mobile suit deck to make final checks for what all of them now half-believed was a suicide mission.

_- 0930 hours (CST) -  
_"Ensign Nine, I'm only going to repeat one more time that I will not tolerate any more of your sass. I could overlook it with a bunch of second-rate guerillas like yesterday, but this is the Tarawa we're fighting."

Nine powered up the mobile armor and adjusted the fit of her normal suit. Unlike the Flash Gundam, the psycommu interface on the Lucifer mobile armor was built directly into the cockpit. She was still getting used to the light-weight normal suit helmet she had traded for the transmitter-headgear. "I know that, Carter. This is my mission, remember? Now quit distracting me."

"Ensign!"

"Nine Murasame, moving out!"

The entire battleship gave a heavy shudder as the mobile armor moved out of the Gogos Gaia's large shuttle hangar in the aft of the command tower. The Hizack squad launched at the same moment, followed shortly by the four Flash Gundams from the two hangar pods along the flanks. The Hizack squad moved to a flanking position alongside the battleship as the Newtypes moved forward, and Carter glanced over at Dr. Adams at his control board on the side of the bridge, "Her emotional states are becoming more and more extreme."

"I know. It's a side effect of her enhancements we haven't been able to overcome yet. The more powerful her senses become, the more erratic her behavior."

"You mean to tell me her senses have already increased since the last sortie?"

Adams looked at the data on one of his monitors, careful with his words not to give the Admiral the wrong idea. "Sir, Nine's sensory abilities have almost overcome her lack of eyesight. Her sensitivity to energy patterns is already responding logarithmically, which means at her current rate of development..."

"I know. She won't even need her eyes anymore."

Adams nodded. "It wouldn't be true vision, more of an awareness of objects and conditions of..."

"The uncertainty principle teaches us that kind of awareness is impossible. Therefore, Doctor, what Nine Murasame is about to accomplish violates one of the most fundamental understandings of modern science."

Adams nodded again. "Seems that way."

Admiral Carter thought for a moment, then at last made his decision. "Nine has become a liability. As soon as we're finished with the Tarawa, I want you to send Nine a termination order."

"What?!" Adams came half out of his chair, almost leaping across the room to throttle the admiral before his reflexes caught him, "What the hell for?! Nine's the most advanced subject we've ever...!"

"You've already demonstrated that the more they develop, the more unpredictable their behavior. And Nine is already flaunting the laws of physics by her very existence, and that to me is a power I don't believe we can keep in check for very long. Not to mention, her telepathy is becoming increasingly invasive. Even I can't block her at times."

"Admiral...!"

"The decision is final, Doctor. Nine Murasame is to be terminated on completion of this mission." Adams seemed on the verge of a mental breakdown at the comment, and in sympathy Carter added, "I'll allow you to dissect the body for conclusionary studies."

"Don't you get it, Carter?" Adams said bitterly, "These are human beings we're dealing with, not just test subjects you can terminate on a whim! Nine is not a danger to you, in fact she's the most powerful asset we have ever cultivated...!"

"Are you refusing to send the termination order, Mr. Adams?"

The Doctor hesitated to answer, waiting just a moment too long.

"In that case," Carter reached into his pocket, drew his side arm and aimed it directly at Adam's head, "You've just become a liability, Dr. Adams. I think it's time you departed."

Adams' face turned a shade of ashen white, then immediately deepened to a dark red as his fear turned into rage, "Fine," He said through clenched teeth, "I'll do it."

"Good man." Carter tucked the pistol back into his pocket and adjusted his posture in his chair, slouching lazily and crossing his legs almost in an expression of boredom. "Lieutenant Belatine, begin a full sensor sweep of the area. I want to be informed the moment we or the Agamemnon locate the Tarawa."

_- 1052 hours (CST) -  
_Simone wiped the sweat from her eyes and stared again at her radar screen, scrutinizing one by one the endless array of intermittent signals from the ship's radar and spectral scanners. With the sensors on such high power the ship was picking up every object for ten thousand kilometers and garbling it together like so much gibberish, clutter of useless data she was forced to sift through like a cosmic "Where's Waldo" book. She tugged at her collar to loosen it, glancing over her shoulder to see Admiral Dyson glaring at her for lord knew how long. "Something bothering you, Ensign?"

"Wha? Uh... N-no sir," _Creepy son of a bitch, quit staring at me!_

Commander Passaroff managed a backward glance from his helm station without being noticed, taking in the awkwardness of the situation. Whatever twist of fate had brought the otherwise perfectly synchronized crew of the Albion under the command of a sadistic power-monger like Juan Dyson, he couldn't say for sure, but from the look of the officers and crew around the room he was not the only one permanently warped by the experience. "Admiral," He said, checking his navigation board, "We're now approaching Bunch 17 airspace."

"Good. Lieutenant Harrida, scan all frequencies for..."

"Sir," Simone's radar panel sparkled for a moment, then began to fade out. The computer analysis confirmed what she already knew, "Minovsky particle density is rising."

Dyson raised a brow. "Trace the jamming waves. Back track to the source."

"Right, Sir. Scanning now for..."

The Agamemnon lurched heavily to the side as a blast of energy crossed over the bow; the crimson beam of luminous energy blinding the entire crew for a few moments. After a moment the ship's thrusters stabilized, and the alarms rang out on all decks to bring the ship to battle stations, "I've got it on thermals! Just inside maximum firing range!" Simone shouted, putting the image on the forward screen, "Midway class assault carrier, and two heavy cruisers. They're moving away from us at full combat speed..." The thermal image on the monitor switched to a visual from the ship's long range cameras, and then just as the Tarawa's mega particle guns fired again. This time the twin blasts of energy missed by a wider margin, and the Agamemnon's guns fired back immediately.

"Signal the Gaia that we've located the enemy ships! Launch all mobile suits in a screening formation and continue firing..."

Something massive passed directly over the bridge of the ship, followed shortly by three smaller objects, all moving at tremendous speed towards the Tarawa. His eyes couldn't identify any of the shapes, but only by their movements did he recognize what they were, "Flash Gundams... and that new monstrosity... Would be nice to see how they fare against the Tarawa."

On the bridge of the Tarawa, Kelly read the radar panel in earnest, still un-used to his knew post but for some reason finding comfort in being able to see everything that was going on around him. Even as the return fire from the Agamemnon streaked past them as they retreated, four massive heat sources appeared on his screen and the computer immediately identified the silhouettes, "We've got incoming. Three Flash Gundams, and one unknown mobile armor."

Brian clenched his fists anxiously. "Maintain full combat speed! AA-defenses, standby for close combat! All mobile suits, launch immediately!"

Down in the hangar deck, Naomi and the other pilots were already locked into catapults. At first sound of the order, she slammed the throttles forward and leaned into the catapult, "801, launching!"

"805, launching!" Lucy said half a second later, firing his catapult at almost the same instant. Both of the mobile suits shot from the mobile suit bays of the Tarawa, then rolled back on a wide ark that would bring them in perpendicular to the Flash Gundams.

Ryo launched right behind Naomi, followed in short order by Mike and Rico in the Galbaldys and Duncan in the GM Custom. The five GMs from the escort cruisers circled in the other direction, setting up the approaching Flash Gundams in a pincer movement.

And scanning ahead, Naomi immediately noticed something that amused her, "Ryo, there's a squad of Hizacks moving to engage as well."

"Damn. Like it wasn't already hard enough..."

"We can take em, but watch your tail." The enemy suits were just coming into her maximum firing range now, and at this point their sensors noticed her approach. The Flash Gundams were sticking together in a tight formation wile the Hizacks around them seemed to be acting as a screen. "I think they're trying to get through to the ship."

"Fat chance of that," The Hizacks in the distance locked on as the Tarawa's mobile suits approached. The decision of how to attack and where rattled around in her brain until she met the most logical consensus, "We need to draw them into Vanessa's sights... Lucy, take your team and take out those pinheads down below. Take Duncan with you."

Lucy groaned slightly, "How come you and Ryo always fly solo?"

"This new model's too damn fast. No one else can keep up with me."

"Roger." Lucy adjusted her approach angle and pulled away from the two Gerbera's, zeroing in on a squad of Hizacks from the Dogos Gaia. She locked on at maximum range and fired a single shot from the beam rifle; the first Hizack dodged the attack, rolled to its side and fired back. Immediately all four of the Tarawa's suits plunged into a spiraling battle with all six of the Titans suits, dog-fighting in space in calculated movements designed to spread the battlefield across as wide an area as possible.

Three Hizacks stood in their way, even as the Flash Gundams broke from their formation to engage. Naomi quickly locked onto the first suit and fired a burst from the her beam machinegun, blowing off both of the suit's legs as she passed it at high speed. Two other Hizacks moved in closer, firing with machineguns, but no sooner did they move in to engage did a massive spray of energy beams cut the space around her from one of the Flash Gundams in the formation. Naomi easily dodged the attack, but the two Hizack pilots were far less fortunate. "Such a clumsy attack... is that you, Miranda?"

"I have nothing to say to YOU, Seven!" The Flash Gundam released all twelve of its bits at once, swirling up to surround the Gerbera as it moved through space. Naomi rolled on her back as she flew and fired a wide spray with the machineguns in her forearms, dodging fire from both the bits and the Gundam as she went. Four of the bits exploded behind her, and she accelerated again to put some distance between them. "You betrayed us! We were all in this together, remember?!"

"Who's "we?" It was the four of us, Miranda! You were my friend, I was trying to help YOU! You think I had any loyalty to Carter?!"

This stopped her for a moment, but from behind her Ulyana's Gundam released its own bits to swarm up around her. For some reason Miranda felt her adrenaline pumping with more intensity, her thoughts becoming more erratic until she herself could no longer control them. She felt herself loosing control; everything about it felt more and more unnatural... "N-Naomi... y-you have to..."

Something that felt like a fist closed around her mind and gripped her tightly in her control. She recognized the source of the energy; a hundred kilometers behind them, Lucifer's psycommu was hammering them all into submission. "Target identified," Nine said coldly, "Commence attack sequence,"

"Roger," Miranda moved to the side, clearing Ulyana's line of fire.

Her forearm guns screamed a barrage of beam fire at the Gerbera, but Izumi's beam machinegun caught her from a blind side and chopped away a section of her armor on the left shoulder. "Naomi, I'm picking up that unknown mobile armor. It's headed straight for us."

"Keep your distance, Ryo! Draw them to the rocks!" She reversed back as she fired another long burst, first against Miranda's mobile suit and again at Ulyana's unit. The quick pulses burst against both of their I-fields and dissipated into space, but a return fire from somewhere below them shot the beam machinegun from Naomi's hands. She looked down in that direction just in time to see Ashitaka's Gundam moving up from below, firing away with all of its weapons as it closed in, "Shit, that's the last thing I need!"

"It's okay, just switch to your auto-cannons!" Ryo put a burst in Ashitaka's direction to slow his approach, then joined Naomi in what had become a high-speed run for cover.

Even as the two of them turned and made a dash towards the asteroid, Lucy's mobile suits and the supporting GMs began to regroup further below, a second wave of Hizacks moving up to replace the squad the nine of them had just driven off. "Reinforcements are coming, but we don't have time to worry about em." Lucy said quickly, changing packs on her beam rifle, "Where's Naomi and Ryo?"

Rico scanned in space for a moment and spotted the exchange of fire, "There! Moving towards the resource satellite!"

"Excellent! Let's get in there and given them some support before..."

"Lucy!" Mike shoved the Gundam to the side just as a massive energy beam would have sliced it in half. All of them turned at once as another, larger target loomed against the star field, this one making no effort to pursue the other mobile suits but heading straight towards the Tarawa. And Lucy's squad was directly in its path.

Duncan's jaw fell open as his weapons locked on; even as he watched it, the shape of the mobile armor appeared to be shifting before his eyes. The armored panels on the side slid back and revealed arms, the drive pylons on the underside unfolded and formed into oddly shaped legs. A port for a beam cannon on the chest shifted upwards and became a head; in seconds, what had been a terrifying mobile armor had transformed into an even more terrifying mobile suit, easily thirty meters from head to toe. "What the hell is that thing?!"

Lucy's reaction was one of action; she quickly aimed and fired several blasts from the beam rifle directly into the torso of the mobile suit. Instead of dodging, the mobile suit took the blasts in the chest, all of which struck an energy field and deflected off into space. Now a diamond-shaped emitter on the chest began to sparkle and Lucy's instincts screamed in her head, "Get clear!"

All of them fired thrusters to evade, but the sweeping pattern of the scatter beam caught two of the GMs and Duncan's GM Custom before they could escape the cone of fire. One of the GMs exploded immediately, Duncan's suit and the other GM disintegrated and fell away in pieces as their pilots clung to whatever was left of their machines. Lucy and the other pilots scrambled to clear out of its way, and the giant mobile suit charged past them without hesitation, diving towards the Tarawa at fantastic speed.

"Damn, she broke through... 805, calling Empty Nest, enemy mobile armor headed your way!"

On the bridge of the Tarawa, Brian took a deep, slow breath, "I was afraid of that... Erin, lay in a new course. Head for bearing 1-2-7 mark 1-5."

Ensign Garcia started to turn the ship, then stopped in amazement at the new direction, "Captain, that takes us directly towards the asteroid!"

"That's right, Ensign! Take is directly into that resource asteroid! Tell the Adelaide and the Brisbane to remain on course!"

Even Kelly was puzzled by the order, "Leaving our escorts behind, Brian?"

"Carter's only interest is in the Tarawa. He'll follow us to hell and back again." He paused a moment and chuckled, "Though he might not follow us out."

Naomi and Ryo came over the top of the resource satellite just as another swarm of beam cannons chopped up the rock face behind them; the two Gerberas fired a burst from both pairs of auto-cannons in the forearms into the chest of Ashitaka's mobile suit. Most of the shells bounced off harmlessly, but one lucky shot punched through the radiator on the left side and split open the mobile suit in an explosion of sparks. He started to redouble his evasive efforts when several more shells punched through the armor on his right knee and his mobility began to fall as his systems crashed one by one. After a moment the psycommu system also failed, and Ashitaka's mind suddenly cleared and his thoughts returned to him, "Shit," He muttered, "This is Eight Murasame, I can't stay in the fight! Pulling out!"

Ulyana moved immediately to cover his retreat, until another burst from Ryo's beam rifle raked across his vernier pack and rendered him completely immobile. The Flash Gundam began to drift helplessly in space, and Naomi took this opportunity to refocus on her other foes. "We need to buy more time until the big one gets here!"

"Not sure how long I can buy you..." Ryo dodged laser fire from a trio of bits, then fired a burst from his beam rifle across Miranda's face, turning her away from attacking Naomi.

No sooner did the distraction turn her attention did Naomi's beam saber slice a chunk out of her chest armor, disabling the scatter cannon above the cockpit. Miranda reacted sloppily, leaning inwards and throwing a punch in a desperate bid to push Naomi back. As a reward, she took another swing of the beam saber and cut off her arm at the elbow. "C'mon, Miranda, you're better than this!"

"You're in my way, Naomi!" Two bits popped out from the launchers in the shoulders and moved to a position directly above them, both opening up with a barrage of pulse lasers that sent Naomi backpedaling evasively.

Miranda moved quickly to press the attack, but was stopped in her tracks as another, much larger energy beam struck from above, hitting the asteroid in front of her in a powerful explosion. All eyes looked upwards in shock and amazement; the Tarawa was racing towards the resource satellite at its top speed, one of its cannons firing forward against the Flash Gundams near the asteroids, the other two port and starboard aimed rearwards towards the onrushing giant mobile suit behind it. Lucy's team brought up the rear, pouring firepower into Lucifer in a bid to slow it down until the Tarawa could get into range of the asteroid for what Captain Anderson undoubtedly planned.

"So that's their new mobile suit?" Naomi said, scanning Lucifer at maximum range and recording the image, "Not too subtle, are we Carter?"

A burst of fire struck the giant mobile suit from behind; Lucy and the two Galbaldy's poured their beam rifles into it as they charged in, their beams bouncing harmlessly off an I-field to its back. At full speed, Alpha Gundam physically collided with the mobile suit and held on for dear life while the Galbaldys moved to attack from the flanks. Naomi need only watch for a few moments before she noticed the pattern that Lucy had clearly noticed herself, _ Not enough energy... she has to cut the shields to fire beam weapons! _"801, to Eagle Eye, Tarawa's gonna pass right over you! Target that behemoth on the rear and wait for an opening! Her I-field will shut down right before she fires!" A few quick pulses flashed through space around her and she twisted in place in a series of evasive maneuvers as the Flash Gundam's bits zeroed in for the kill.

With the quickest of movements she spun around and cut down one with her auto-cannon, then fired thrusters and pushed straight up as Uylana's scatter beam hit the asteroid beneath her, taking the other two bits with it. Ulyana charged for another another blast until Ryo appeared behind her, slashing deeply across her back with the beam saber before she could react quickly enough to evade. The Gundam's main pack exploded, and the mobile suit began to tumble in space as the pilot stabilized with its secondary thrusters. "Main engines are gone!"

"Hold on, Uly, I'll be right there...!" A burst of fire from the distance beat her to the punch; three different beams from three different mobile suits rained down on Ryo's mobile suit from the distance as he pressed in for the kill, one of the shots shooting away his beam saber along with the hand that carried it. Ryo rolled back and returned fire with his own beam rifle, and all three of the enemies scattered.

"Empty Nest to all units," Came the call from the Tarawa, "Enemy reinforcements approaching. Fall back within range of the ship's defenses!"

_I hate it when this happens,_ Naomi disengaged from the Flash Gundams, pulling back to the onrushing assault carrier as it neared the asteroid. The behemoth mobile suit chasing it was even now closing in, but delayed heavily by its continuing wrestling match with Lucy and the Galbaldys. The surviving GM unit had already come up around the Tarawa and was trading fire with the new groups of approaching mobile suits, but even now the sky was filling with enemies.

Ryo and Naomi both fell back and landed on the end of the launch ramp of the mobile suit deck, firing with whatever weapons they had left at the enemies all around the ship. Quick-thinking mechanics in the starboard bay opened the hatch and pushed a beam machinegun into space; Naomi grabbed it as it passed and put her auto-cannons to rest, firing now off the beam rifle.

Tarawa now passed directly over the asteroid, and as it did the ship banked up sharply and rocketed into space for its last mad retreat from Side 2. In another minute Vanessa would spring their trap, but Brian transmitted one last order first, "Lieutenant Marquise, once you fire the shot, send a feedback wave through the energy feed to the asteroid's fusion reactor."

Vanessa did a double take at the request, breaking radio silence for the first time, "Captain, that'll cause a...!"

"I know, Vanessa. Just do it!"

"Roger." Lucifer was coming into her sights now, with Lucy and the others still dogging it in a vain effort to distract it from destroying the Tarawa. She focused her senses on the enemy there, tuning her soul to the enemy pilot to predict her moves perfectly. Even as she watched, Lucifer seemed to be gaining ground; a quad-blast from its arm cannons blew off the legs of one of the Galbaldys, and with a powerful swing of its arms sent Lucy tumbling into space. Rico's mobile suit fired its missiles at nearly point blank range; Lucifer fired back with its scatter cannons, blasting through his shield and knocking off one of his arms, along with a sizeable section of armor from his torso.

_I can feel you... _She thought, homing in on the pilot in her mind's eye, _Just give me one good opening... c'mon... _

Nine sensed a burst of pressure in the sides of her head, sudden intensity but growing with every second. This was a new threat, she realized, not from the Tarawa or any of the other pilots. _Who's tracking me?_ Tarawa's mega particle cannons fired to the rear against the behemoth; Lucifer's I-field caught both of the beams, and evaded the next barrage as she moved to change her firing position. The pressure increased, with such intensity that her heart was now pounding in her chest, _Where is that coming from? Where is it...?_ Her frustration overwhelmed her, and in a snap decision she tapped a switch on the control panel. The psycommu system immediately shut down.

"88%.. 94%... alright..." The force chamber in beam cannon was at full capacity, enough, she suspected, even to blast Lucifer out of the sky. Vanessa sensed a change in her target, but didn't have time to ponder the implications. With the system deactivated, Nine could see clearly now; a brilliant red light in the darkness of her world, beaming on her like a spotlight, waiting to make its move. Ahead of her she sensed the Tarawa as well, but without the interface even that had changed somehow... She cut the I-field and powered up her scatter beam for a concentrated blast.

"Gotcha!" The scatter beam flickered as it began to fire, and Vanessa squeezed the trigger... but just a split second too late she realized that the scatter beam was no longer aimed at the carrier.

Their attacks passed each other in space. Vanessa's beam cannon scored a direct hit, slicing across the torso on the left side and tearing away a large section of the giant mobile suit under the left arm. The scatter beam that answered it rained down on the GM custom in a tight concentration, dozens of tiny particle beams slicing through every section of the armor and even boring into the rock face it stood on. Vanessa just managed a squeak of surprise before the mobile suit vaporized around her and the fusion reactor detonated, adding to the fireball of molten rock as the beams drilled deeper into the asteroid, reaching the core of the facilities below.

The brilliant fireball that erupted from Vanessa's firing position was the first of many as the asteroid begun to tear itself apart. From deep within the rock the fusion reactor detonated with the force of a hundred nukes, and the vaporized materials pushed their way out of the asteroid until the entire mass of it was consumed in a fireball. A scattering of rock fragments and space dust buffeted the Tarawa as if raced away from the scene, forced the Titans mobile suits to pull back and provided an ample screen from the radars of the warships in the distance.

Even with the damage from Vanessa's cannon, Lucifer was the only mobile weapon to move through the debris. "Damn snipers..." Nine grumbled, homing in to finish her fight, "You're next Tarawa!" Nine locked onto the ship through the chaos her beams had caused, fired again in a wider pattern. The beams hit nothing but the scattering of asteroid fragments, but cleared a path all the way to the ship for her to move in closer. Tarawa's rear guns fired again and again to drive her off, but this time there was no one between her and her goal. "Finally!" She shouted, "Finally I can..."

Her psycommu still deactivated, she sensed suddenly a new light in the center of where she sensed the Tarawa was moving. There was a presence there, identical in nature to the one she had just destroyed, but when she focused on it she sensed it was moving towards her... a woman, standing between her and the Tarawa with her hands up defensively, "Stop it, Alice!" Vanessa shouted in desperation, "You don't want to do this!"

"I have to! Get out of the way!" She charged up another blast, and now a new presence appeared in front of her... and a third... and a fourth and fifth. Connor was there, and Eric, and a young girl she had never seen before who very much reminded her of Naomi.

"Don't do it, Nine." Connor urged, "They're not your enemies."

"Of course they are! They're the ones who..." But when she thought about it, the realization struck her that Connor was telling the truth. Whatever it was that had caused her to hate the Tarawa so much was no longer present in her mind, "Aren't they?"

The other girl pointed, directing Nine's attention to the distance. Somehow she could see them; the Dogos Gaia and the Agamemnon alongside. And Carter, standing on the bridge, with the same obnoxious grin on his lips, "There's your enemy, right over there. Do you see?"

Nine turned back to the others and saw that a new presence had joined them: a tall man in a Zeon uniform with gentle eyes and black hair. She had never seen this man before in this life or the one she had forgotten, but something in her soul told him this was Major Isaac Cunningham. "Don't you let anyone tell you who you are, Alice." He said softly, "Find yourself in the things you left behind. The things that matter to you most are the things that define you."

"What matters most to me?! I want my life back, that's all that matters!"

"Carter is not the one who can give that to you." Connor said.

"Then who can?"

The six ghostly images disappeared again, plunging her back into the darkness she had known her entire life. But in the fading images one face flashed before her eyes, at once answering her question before consciousness left her, "Duncan...?"

_- 1803 hours (CST) -  
_Captain Larson groaned and set the handset back down on her desk, leaning back in her chair in anxiety. Sayla read the gesture properly, and groaned likewise to match. "Didn't go well, did it?"

Larson shook her head. "Eight mobile suits were destroyed, all of the others were heavily damaged. Tarawa even lost two of her own."

Sayla felt a nervous twinge in her stomach. "Which two?"

"Duncan and Vanessa. They said Duncan managed to bail out in time, he'll make a recovery in a day or so."

"I see." Somehow she breathed the faintest sigh of relief, though not for herself, but for Larson's peace of mind. "Your dau... er... Commander Wilson is okay, isn't she?"

After the longest hesitation, Captain Larson nodded. "A little shaken up, but she's okay."

Sayla thought for a few long moments, any way that might help the Tarawa in what was increasingly a one-sided battle. The request for reinforcements came at a time when AEUG resources were stretched to their limit. All construction facilities were hard at work building the new ships, new mobile suits, new facilities to build both. None of these things would be ready in time to assist the Tarawa, and yet the Titans would be able to reinforce with powerful new weapons any day of the week.

But they did have one trump card. "I think we have no choice but to send to Tarawa that monstrosity Marquise was hiding."

Larson sat up rigid in her chair, partly in surprise, partly in frustration, "I was led to believe that mobile suit would be used only as a last resort."

"If the Titans continued to develop new weapons, it will be entirely obsolete in a matter of months."

"It's ALREADY obsolete. It's not the technology we need, it's the firepower."

"And who needs that firepower now more than the Tarawa does? We can send them spare parts for their mobile suits, but as for reinforcements, we just can't do it. That mobile suit is the only assistance we can give them now."

Larson thought about it for a few long moments, but just as she was coming to her final decision a new call buzzed on her monitor and she picked up the handset and switched on the video monitor. "Larson speaking."

Brex Forra appeared on the other end, Lieutenant Quattro a few feet behind him as always, "Greetings, Captain. Is Dr. Mass with you?"

"Yes, she's here."

"Can I speak with her please?" Larson gestured the phone over to Sayla, and she stepped forward and took the handset and looked directly into the monitor, "Dr. Mass, we've finally received a reply from Mr. Winn in Hong Kong. They'll be shipping our package in seven days."

Sayla nodded, and looked over at Gwen, "We'll have to pick it up from orbit. We'll only have time for one pass."

"But it will be more difficult than we thought," Brex added, "Reports indicate Titans surveillance is intensifying. We estimate chances of the package being intercepted are about 80%."

Gwen shrugged. "Well, tell em not to send it then."

"We can't afford to wait," Lieutenant Quattro added from behind him, "Our window of opportunity is seven days away, during a solar flare when their tracking capabilities will be reduced. We won't have another opportunity like this for another six months. If we wait for Titans surveillance to loosen up, Anaheim is likely to default on the contract."

"Can't we borrow from investors until we can recover the package?"

"The investors are already past their limit and waiting for returns. This recovery is time-specific. Either we do this in seven days, or we don't do it at all."

It was a truly remarkable thing the way Lieutenant Quattro could be so calculating at times, yet Larson knew already that he was entirely correct. Despite her better judgment, her choice was clear. "We'll set off in three days for the rendezvous point. With any luck we'll slip past without being spotted."

"Very well, Captain. Make all the preparations you need."

Larson was about to end the transmission when Sayla snatched the handset from her and stared into the monitor, "Quattro Bajina," She said gently.

The Lieutenant hesitated for the longest moment, and then in a surprising gesture, took off his sunglasses and stepped in front of the Commodore. "Hello, Dr. Mass. It's been awhile."

Larson couldn't be sure, but for just a moment she thought she heard a tremor in Sayla's voice. "I, uh... I just wanted to tell you... No hard feelings from... from last time."

Quattro's normally blank face manifested the faintest of smiles, "Thank you, Doctor. And also, thank you for finally taking my advice."

Sayla returned his smile, and gently hung up the phone and ended the transmission. She walked back around the desk without a word, heading for the door out of the office. "Captain Larson," She said, pausing in the doorway, "We might need to call in assistance for this mission."

"What kind of assistance?"

"One ship won't be enough. If the Titans discover us, it would be a big help to have an assault carrier on hand."

It was an idea she normally would have dismissed offhand, but somehow she sensed a hidden meaning behind Sayla's words. After a moment of thought, part of that message became clear. "You're right. The Tarawa could act as our reinforcements."

Sayla nodded, both of them understanding just what was being left unsaid. But for the matter at hand, Sayla made one more thing clear, "Captain, I really don't know the history between you and your daughter, but please, take my advice, don't let that history keep you apart. It's a mistake that you'll end up regretting." She pushed through the door of the office and then she was gone, leaving her words hanging in the air for Larson to chew on for countless hours while the ship made preparations to depart.


End file.
